After AICC prod, outsider Revanth moves to build bridges with Telangana Congress satraps

The significant thing about the meeting was the fact that this was the first time in many months that all the senior leaders of the faction-riven Telangana Congress came together for a common purpose.

Ever since Revanth Reddy was appointed as the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president in June last year, the factional feuds within the state unit has deepened. The 52-year-old political firebrand Reddy has managed to carve a “popular” profile for himself in state politics, though.

A relentless critic of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for a long time, Reddy had riled the TRS so much that its leaders had gone out of their way to ensure that he was defeated from his native Kodangal seat in the December 2018 Telangana Assembly polls as a Congress candidate.

Reddy, who has always been popular in Kodangal, had won from the constituency in the 2009 and 2014 Assembly polls, when he was with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He, however, bounced back in just a few months and secured a party ticket from the Malkajgiri parliamentary constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which he won. Since then, Reddy has further strengthened his image as a combative Opposition leader much to the chagrin of senior state Congress leaders such as N Uttam Kumar Reddy, T Jayaprakash Reddy, V Hanumantha Rao, Madhu Yakshi Goud, M Shashidhar Reddy, and J Geetha Reddy, among others.

A group of the Telangana Congress leaders even met top party leader Rahul Gandhi early this month to complain against Reddy’s “style of functioning”. Their beef with the TPCC president has been that the latter allegedly refrains from communicating with senior state party leaders and does not involve them while taking any decision related to the party affairs.

For instance, a Congress leader complained that when Reddy had a few months ago charged KCR with allegedly growing paddy at his farmhouse while discouraging farmers to grow it, he gave a call to the Congress workers to go to the CM’s farmhouse to protest, but the party leaders were “totally clueless” about this agitation. “He (Reddy) knew that police will not allow him to head to the CM’s farmhouse and staged a drama outside his own house. We were all at home and had no idea about it,’’ a party leader said.

However, the state Congress leaders’ main grouse against Reddy seems to be that he is an “outsider” and a “TDP turncoat”, who has been entrusted with the “formidable post of the TPCC president while ignoring the claims of other party leaders”.

Many senior Telangana Congress leaders have not met Reddy more than once since his appointment. That all of them came together on Wednesday to submit their memorandum to the Governor reflected Reddy’s bid to reach out to his party colleagues after he was counselled by the Congress central leadership to make necessary corrections in his working style. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership apparently told him that unless he takes the state party leaders along, his functioning will not be tolerated.

A section of the TPCC leaders, who back Reddy, however feel that he is their “best bet” if the Congress, which is the principal Opposition party, has to put up even a “minimal fight” against the TRS in the next Assembly polls slated for December next year. “It seems that if Revanth Reddy takes them (his TPCC detractors) along, they are willing to let him have the upper hand,’’ a leader said.

Reddy’s supporters feel he has infused some energy into the grand old party, which was virtually decimated in the state in recent polls. One of them said, “People say the BJP is the leading Opposition in the state and not the Congress. After Revanth took over, at least people are talking of Congress again.’’

Another Telangana Congress faction however believes that instead of depending on one leader to achieve success, a strategy should be evolved to strengthen the party from the grassroots afresh and that a long-term plan involving the entire state leadership should be put in place in the lead-up to the 2023 Assembly polls.

On his part, Reddy will be touring the entire state in the coming days to connect with senior state unit leaders as well as district-level party activists.

However, bringing together state party leaders owing allegiance to various factions led by leaders like ex-TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and current working presidents, Anjan Kumar Yadav and Jayaprakash Reddy, would be an uphill task for Revanth Reddy, whose leadership still seems to be “unacceptable” to many senior leaders.