Heated exchange as Congress rivals Revanth Reddy and Venkat Reddy finally come face to face

Venkat Reddy also did not campaign for the Congress nominee Palvai Sravanthi.

What hurt party leaders more was the fact that Venkat Reddy left for a holiday in Australia at a time the Congress campaign in Munugode was struggling.

The party eventually lost the election, coming a miserable third after the BRS and the BJP, with its candidate even losing her deposit.

Gandhi Bhavan visit

Venkat Reddy, after a very long time, visited Gandhi Bhavan on Friday, 20 January, to meet the Congress’s Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre who arrived in the city on a three-day stay to oversee preparations for the ‘Hath se Hath Jodo’ yatra which is scheduled to begin on 26 January.

Revanth Reddy with Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre. (Facebook)

When the two leaders — Revanth Reddy and Venkat Reddy — met, they are understood to have had a heated discussion on some subject. It is not yet known what had transpired between them in the tete-e-tete which seemed to have turned into a verbal duel.

Earlier, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy told reporters that he came to Gandhi Bhavan on an invitation from Thakre. He said he had never declared that he would not visit Gandhi Bhavan and that he was not very much visible these days because he was busy in his constituency.

Meanwhile, Thakre began confabulations with the leaders of the party, explaining to them on how to go about the ‘Hath Se Hath Jodo’ yatras.

He will have a series of meetings on Saturday and Sunday after where he is expected to get a consensus opinion on Revanth Reddy’s padayatra from Bhadrachalam to Indervellin Adilabad which would begin on 26 Janaury.

Anti-Revanth faction

There is a section in the TPCC which wants to throw a spanner in Revanth Reddy’s plans to take out the padayatra.

While Revanth Reddy says his padayatra would only strengthen the party, which is very essential as the elections to the Assembly are not very far off, his detractors have been saying that the TPCC president does not have permission to take out an extended ‘Hath se Hath Jodo’ padayatra.

Revanth’s supporters, on the other hand, contend his rivals in the party are worried that the state Congress chief would emerge even stronger from his padayatra, and hence their attempts to queer his pitch.

They also claim that Thakre’s meetings with various leaders of the party were to obtain legitimacy for Revanth Reddy’s padayatra as the party has already cleared it.

His supporters say that Revanth had already obtained clearance from Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge.