After crossing the first major hurdle of being appointed president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) against all odds A. Revanth Reddy is making all out efforts to cross the second hurdle of satisfying the egos of party seniors.
However, senior leaders and top contenders for the PCC post seem to be avoiding him for strange reasons, sources said. Mr. Revanth Reddy had personally tried to reach outgoing TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka, Sangareddy MLA T. Jayaprakash Reddy, Manthani MLA D. Sreedhar Babu and MLC T. Jeevan Reddy but in vain.
“He made several efforts to personally meet them and seek their blessings but there has been no response from them,” a leader close to Mr. Revanth Reddy revealed. “He will continue to reach out to them. We understand they all are not happy but change is a process that they have to accept for the betterment of the party.”
But some leaders who are senior to Mr. Revanth in the party and politics seem to have accepted his elevation as they called on him or greeted him personally. And the new PCC chief had played his cards well personally calling on all the seniors at their residences.
The first move itself was quite an indicator. A few minutes after the announcement he met the senior-most in the party K. Jana Reddy, sending a positive vibe and shattering the perception that he is highly independent. The very next day he visited the Apollo Hospitals where senior leader and strong critic V. Hanmanth Rao was undergoing treatment for a kidney ailment. It was quite fruitful as Mr. Hanmanth Rao received him positively unlike the expectations of the Congress workers.
For the last one week, the new president has been on the mission of pacifying the seniors irrespective of whether their anger mattered to the high command and the cadre or not. He has been visiting the residences of seniors even though thousands of Congress followers were turning up at his office to greet him.
In the last few days, he met seniors like Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Damodar Rajnarsimha, Ponnam Prabhakar, Shabbir Ali, Renuka Chowdary, G. Chinna Reddy, J. Geetha Reddy, Nagam Janardhan Reddy, A. Sampath Kumar, Ch. Vamshichand Reddy.
Some seniors who have been arguing for his case like Mallu Ravi and H. Venugopal have been accompanying him from much before his elevation.
The response to the appointment from districts has been overwhelming with large numbers continuing to descend at Revanth Reddy’s office and the party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan.