Hyderabad: “My life’s sole objective, from now on, is dislodging KCR from power,” roared Anumula Revanth Reddy in a road show in Hyderabad in July 2015, after the Telangana High Court granted bail release from the Cherlapally jail on the outskirts.
It took him eight years and five months, and a change in political affiliation, to achieve the target. On Sunday, as the Telangana election results showed the exit to two-term CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), Congress leaders like D.K. Shivakumar congratulated PCC chief Revanth Reddy with sweets for the achievement.
Revanth not only managed to dislodge KCR from the seat but also is the front runner for the CM post, according to Congress leaders.
In May 2015, Revanth, then a legislator of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was arrested by the Telangana ACB for allegedly bribing a nominated MLA to support his party in the then MLC elections. TDP chief and then Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu also faced heat in the episode, which came to be known as the ‘note-for-vote’ scandal.
Revanth had claimed that he was targeted by KCR for exposing his mis-governance, land deals with a real estate group. “To eject the KCR family from politics, I’ll visit every nook and corner of Telangana to stir the public, especially the youth,” he had pledged in the procession on the way to the TDP headquarters in Banjara Hills.
As the Congress state chief and star-campaigner now, Revanth went on a whirlwind tour of the state, addressing around 85 public meetings appealing the voters to send KCR to his farmhouse and his son and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T.Rama Rao back to the US.
Also Read: BJP’s Katipally Ramana Reddy: Meet man who beat CM & his possible successor in Telangana’s Kamareddy
Stints across political spectrum
Revanth was born in a farmer’s family in Kondareddipalle village near Kalwakurthy in undivided Andhra Pradesh (now in south Telangana) on 8 November, 1968. His election affidavit says he completed a BA course at the AV College in Hyderabad in 1992.
Associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in his student life, Revanth began his political career in 2001-02 with the then fledgling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS). After a disenchanted stint, Revanth successfully contested the 2006 Zilla Parishad Territorial Council election as an Independent.
Some of his impressive, initial victories were against the Congress. In 2007, Revanth, again as an Independent, defeated Congress candidate in the Mahbubnagar area local bodies MLC polls.
Revanth then caught the eye of Chandrababu Naidu, joined the TDP in 2008 and was elected an MLA from Kodangal first time in 2009, defeating the Congress candidate with a near 7,000-vote margin. He doubled the majority in 2014, winning again from the same seat. Later, Naidu elevated him as the Telangana TDP working president and assembly floor leader.
Known for his corrosive oration, Revanth had continuously targeted the KCR regime over several issues. In his public speeches, Revanth, unhesitatingly, dubbed KCR, as a ‘taagubothu’ (drunkard) and ‘sannasi’ (ascetic but popularly used here to mean idiot).
In October 2017, as the TDP clout began to diminish in Telangana with Naidu moving his administrative set up to Amaravati, Revanth joined the Congress party.
It is said that KCR was so vexed with him that the TRS leaders and cadres were given the target of defeating Revanth at any cost in Kodangal to stop his reentry into the assembly. Revanth was trounced in his two-term seat in December 2018, which he reclaimed Sunday.
He, however, was elected as the Congress MP in the 2019 general election from Malkajgiri, one of the largest Lok Sabha segments in the country.
Unlike the other Telangana TDP MLAs who defected to the TRS, Revanth maintained cordial relations with Naidu. Revanth was branded by some of his own party leaders as “an outsider, Naidu’s man in Telangana politics.” Brushing aside such aspersions, the Congress leadership chose to make him the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief in June 2021, following the party’s repeated bypoll losses in Telangana.
The Gandhis were strongly supporting Revanth during the elections, quelling any dissent, and, Revanth, party insiders said, managed to live up to their expectations.
During the time of nomination, some Congress leaders denied tickets, reportedly accused Revanth of “selling off the tickets”, prompting the opposition and detractors to launch an outdoor and social media campaign with hashtag #RatenthaReddy (What’s the rate, Reddy?)
Accusations aside, Revanth is now credited for galvanising the Congress workers with his emotive speeches and leading the party to victory.
“Whatever his affiliations, ambitions are, Revanth has been a committed crusader. I remember him as a youngster actively participating in our agitation for Srisailam reservoir backwaters over two decades back,” Purushotham Reddy, a retired professor from Osmania University, who hails from the same parched Achampet-Kalwakurthy area as Revanth’s, told ThePrint.
Hoping that “he will be a better CM than KCR,” noted political scientist Prof. G. Haragopal told ThePrint that he expects Revanth “to restore democratic space in the state, be human centric and value institutions like the universities.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: EC suspends Telangana DGP for meeting Congress chief Revanth Reddy during counting of votes