It appears Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy is gradually emerging as a front runner for the chief minister post, if the party comes to power in Telangana in the coming assembly elections in the state.
In fact, the Congress has not witnessed a single leader who has the capacity to command the entire party, after the death of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
After the formation of Telangana, the Congress had seen two PCC presidents – Ponnala Lakshmaiah and N Uttam Kumar Reddy, but they could not assert themselves due to dissident leaders within the party.
Even YSR had a lot of detractors within the party, but he managed to silence all of them with his charm and tremendous clout with the party high command at the Centre.
Now, Revanth Reddy has also emerged as an undisputed leader in the party, despite dissident leaders, thanks to the support from the high command.
That Revanth Reddy had gained command over the party in Telangana was evident from the way he got the party tickets to his followers and supporters in the upcoming assembly elections.
Going by the lists, at least 60 per cent of the candidates selected by the party are Revanth loyalists.
When Revanth Reddy took over as the PCC chief in June 2021, several senior Congress leaders opposed him, as he was a new comer to the party, having defected from the Telugu Desam Party into the Congress in October 2017.
Leaders like former PCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and his brother Rajagopal Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, PCC working president and Sangareddy MLA T Jayaprakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy and former ministers D Sridhar Babu and T Jeevan Reddy used to criticise Revanth Reddy openly, saying he was taking unilateral decisions in organising party programmes without consulting seniors.
But as the elections approached, all these seniors fell in Revanth’s line.
He successfully kept all the seniors who had earlier opposed his leadership, in good humour by accommodating them and the candidates recommended by them in the list of contestants.
Uttam Kumar Reddy got the party ticket for himself and his wife Padmavathi from Huzurnagar and Kodad respectively, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy from Nalgonda and his brother Rajagopal Reddy from Munugode.
Other seniors who got the tickets include: D Sridhar Babu (Manthani), T Jagga Reddy (Sangareddy), Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka (Madhira) and MLC T Jivan Reddy (Jagtiyal).
He successfully sidelined several seniors like Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Nagam Janardhan Reddy and V Hanumantha Rao who did not accept his leadership and got the tickets allotted to defectors from other parties and new comers who pledged loyalty to him.
Now, the Congress leaders are forced to accept Revanth leadership, as he is running from one part to another to campaign for the party. His loyalists have already started projecting him as the CM face of the party.
And with the high command pitching him from Kamareddy to fight against chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, it is pretty evident that he will be the CM candidate, if the party comes to power.
Though others like Jagga Reddy and Komatireddy are also claiming that they can become CMs, they have declared that they would wait for the chance, if not immediately.
