The leaders who were already rallying against the party's state chief questioned his authority to make policy announcements in the US.
Congress leaders including Revanth Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and others with Rahul Gandhi unveiling the Congress poll promise for Telangana. (Twitter)
Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy’s statement on restricting free power supply to the farm sector to a maximum of eight hours is resurrecting old demons in the Congress, with opponents going for his jugular, as much as leaders of the rival BRS are doing.
Even as Telangana’s ruling party was trying to brand the Congress anti-farmer by organising protests and criticising the grand old party’s state chief, internal rivals of Revanth Reddy were using the opportunity to gain an upper hand.
Revanth Reddy, addressing a meeting of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) in Philadelphia recently, said that as most of farmers in Telangana did not have land-holding exceeding more than three acres, three hours of power supply would suffice for them, at the rate of one hour of supply per acre.
All in all, he went on to add, the power supply could be restricted to eight hours to meet the requirement of farmers of all categories — marginal, small, medium, and big.
The BRS, which has been biding its time for the Congress to commit a faux paus of this nature, moved in with surprising speed, taking the party to the cleaners.
BRS leaders said that the Congress stood exposed on what it intended to do to the farm sector if and when it comes to power.
To contain the damage, Manikrao Thakre, the Congress’s Telangana in-charge, intervened, saying that the party was committed to providing power supply free to the farm sector.
Revanth Reddy, too, chipped in from the US, saying that if at all there was any party that can supply power round the clock to the farmers, it was the Congress alone. His rebuttal, however, was too little, too late.
It was like shutting the stables after the horses had bolted.
As protests by the BRS spread across the state like wildfire, the Congress came out with rival protests, painting the ruling party as resorting to agitations not out of love for the farmers but only to serve the interests of the BJP.
The party claimed that the BJP wanted to divert people’s attention from the Congress’ satyagraha in protest against the disqualification of the party’s senior leader Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha.
Even as the party argued that Revanth’s statement was “twisted” out of context, the Telangana Congress president’s rivals asserted themselves.
For instance, his bete noir and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, slammed Revanth, asking who had given him authority to make policy announcements from the US.
He even asked whether he owned the party or whether the Congress was a regional party headed by him.
This was obviously in retaliation to Revanth’s remarks at the same TANA meeting that anyone could become the chief minister of the state, including Mulugu MLA D Anasuya alias Seethakka, who has a Naxalite background and happens to be a household name in the tribal areas in Mulugu district.
According to analysts, Revanth Reddy did not make the “chief minister” comments off the cuff but did it on purpose to check leaders like Venkata Reddy and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka who are nursing ambitions of becoming the chief minister of the state by upstaging him.
Already, Revanth Reddy was upset with Venkata Reddy’s comment that a Scheduled Caste (SC) person could become the chief minister of the state, at a function attended by party president Mallikarjun Kharge to felicitate Bhatti Vikramarka, an SC leader, for his padayatra in the Adilabad district recently.
The significance of Venkata Reddy’s comments was not lost on Revanth Reddy, who was present at the function. Though he did not say anything, it was quite obvious that the Bhongir MP had touched a raw nerve.
Venkata Reddy’s comments had the potential of queering the pitch of Revanth Reddy as the party was now looking at ways to get the SCs back into its fold, especially with Mallikarjun Kharge — a Dalit leader himself — as the party’s national president.
Now Revanth Reddy had got his opportunity to thrust his rapier deep into Venkata Reddy and Vikramarka. His comment appeared very casual, but all seasoned politicians make politically loaded statements look as if they were made inadvertently.
At the TANA meeting, answering a question from the audience on whether he would make Seethakka the deputy chief minister of Telangana, Revanth Reddy, who saw an opportunity to get even with Venkata Reddy, said that, if the situation so warranted. why only the deputy chief minister’s post, she could even be made the chief minister of the state.
Revanth’s comments were significant as the party is also looking at the tribal constituency into which the BJP has been making inroads of late by making a tribal woman the president of India and is contemplating taking Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao, also a tribal, into the Union Cabinet.
In these circumstances, Revanth’s comments look appropriate. If the Congress really wants to bring in a tribal as the chief minister, no one fits the bill better than Seethakka as she has always been among the tribals whenever they go through difficult times.
Even during the frightening Covid-19 days, Seethakka reached out to tribal hamlets and supplied rations to them.
Venkata Reddy, cut to the quick with Revanth’s comments, used his other comments on the free and 24-hour power supply to hit back at him.
Even as the BRS began a pincer attack on the Congress, Venkata Reddy demanded to know in what capacity Revanth Reddy had made such a statement.
“Does he own the Congress? Is he heading a regional party? I am very senior to him in the Congress. I am the star campaigner for the party. There is no need for anyone to take his comments seriously. If anyone in Telangana had a right to speak on Congress policies, it is me and definitely not Revanth Reddy,” Venkata Reddy said.
Revanth Reddy’s comments must have rattled Mallu Bhatti Vikramraka as well, but he has not put on a public show of his emotions — at least not yet.
During a pilgrimage to Tirupati, he deftly avoided landing in controversy but made his point clear on who should become the chief minister.
He said: “It is for the party high command to decide who should become the chief minister,” he said, implying that Revanth Reddy does not have the authority to make such comments.
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