5 things you need to know about Revanth Reddy, Congress's favourite CM face in Telangana

The Indian National Congress (INC) has achieved a resounding victory in Telangana, and the credit for this victory arguably goes to one man, Anumula Revanth Reddy, the bete noire of outgoing Telangana CM, K Chandrashekar Rao.

• Congress, under the leadership of Reddy, has won 64 out of 119 seats in the state, with the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) down to 34 from 88 last time.
• Revanth Reddy might have lost the seat from Kamareddy against KCR and BJP MLA K Venkatana Ramana Reddy, but he was the most discussed leader from Congress, when the party produced numbers on the counting day.

Revanth Reddy was not a discussed political personality until December 3, 2023, when the Congress surprisingly scored a victory against the ruling party of Telangana, a political leadership that had established Telangana in the state.

Now, he is the running contender for the Chief Minister (CM) post, and that makes him a very interesting political leader.

Here are 5 things you should know about Revanth Reddy

1. The ABVP connection

• Revanth Reddy might be a Congress leader today, but he began his political innings with the right-wing outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in his student days.
• Reddy doesn't hail from a political family, and instead, comes from an agricultural family. Though the exact tenure of his with ABVP is not known, he is the target of virulent attacks by his critics for his RSS connection.
• All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi often targets Reddy for his RSS roots and says that the Congress leader is a “puppet of RSS”.
• In the latest war of words between the two before the elections, Owaisi had said that Reddy started out as an RSS member wearing a 'chaddi', then went to the ABVP, then joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and has now gone to Congress. “Someone said it right that Congress’s Gandhi Bhavan, captured by Mohan Bhagvat, will run Congress however he wants,” Owaisi said.

2. Bitter animosity with KCR

• Revanth Reddy’s long-term rivalry with Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao is hidden from no-one, and it was because of this heated battle that Reddy chose to fight against KCR from KCR’s own bastion, Kamareddy.
• Reddy lost, coming in third in the counting; but not without showing that he had the fire in his belly to take on the Telangana CM on his own turf.
• The two have been after each other since 2015, when Reddy was arrested and jailed in the cash-for-votes case as a TDP MLA and had to secure bail to attend his daughter’s wedding.
• KCR is said to have tried to eliminate the TDP from Telangana by implicating Reddy in the cash-for-votes case, and it was from there that the rivalry between the two started.
• Reddy is said to have vowed to take revenge against KCR by removing him as CM. The 54-year-old leader once said, “KCR chose me. I didn’t choose him.”

It is expected that the Congress TPCC President might not hesitate in going after KCR, now that the BRS has lost power in the state.

3. Strong support from Rahul Gandhi

• Reddy had joined the Congress in 2017, and it was since then, when he was appointed one of the three working presidents of the Congress in Telangana, that he has attained the confidence of the top brass.
• Reddy replaced N Uttam Kumar Reddy as the President of the TPCC in 2021, and since then, he has been a favourite of the Gandhi family.
• He was seen at the forefront during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022 when Rahul Gandhi visited the state.
• Political analysts have said that the yatra has worked like magic for Congress in Telangana and strengthened it ahead of the elections.
• “The Congress has come to power in Telangana with the support of Rahul Gandhi. I thank him for having shown faith in me,” Reddy said in a press conference after winning the Telangana elections.

4. Joined Congress only six years ago

• Revanth Reddy was never a Congressman; until 2017, when he joined the grand old party after TDP had become extremely weak in the state.
• For a decade (2007–2017), Reddy stayed in the shadow of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and switched only when the TDP had lost its charm as an opposition to the BRS.
• Congress emerged as the sole second party in the state by 2018, and Reddy was ready to take on BRS from Congress ticket.
• He has been with the party for only six years now, and has reached the top in a very short time. 
• In fact, the BRS was a formidable force in 2018, and till 2021, when Reddy became the President of the TPCC.
• He is instrumental in driving the public narrative against the BRS in the state.

5. Rebellion against him in the Congress

• Reddy is not one of the top players in the state Congress’s scheme of things, and he does face significant resistance from his rivals.
• The state Congress leadership was reportedly miffed when Reddy was chosen as the TPCC President in 2021 ahead of other senior leaders in the party.
• Senior party leader Dasoju Sravan had left Congress, saying that Revanth Reddy as president would make the party more “assertive and aggressive”.
• “He is handling the party as if it were his private property,” Sravan had said after leaving.
• Another rival of Reddy in the Congress was Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy. He had also quit the Congress because of Reddy saying that Revanth’s management style was iron-fisted and did not fit the fluid nature of the Congress's ability to accommodate all leaders.
• Nevertheless, Congress’s stellar performance in the Telangana elections in 2023 has finally put to rest all the criticism against him, and he is expected to be announced as the CM choice of the party for Telangana.