The rapier thrusts between the two leaders began after Revanth Reddy expressed dissatisfaction over the centre not bothering to confer the Padma award posthumously to Gaddar.
Published Feb 04, 2025 | 1:16 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 04, 2025 | 1:16 PM
Bandi Sanjay and Revanth Reddy. (X)
Synopsis: Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy proposed renaming the street with the BJP office in Hyderabad after revolutionary Gaddar in response to BJP leader Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s comments criticizing Gaddar’s Padma award prospects. Kumar retaliated, challenging Reddy to rename Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that he would rename the street where the BJP office is located in Hyderabad after revolutionary balladeer Gaddar.
He commented while slamming BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar for unequivocally stating that “personalities like Gaddar will never get any Padma award”.
The chief minister, while speaking at Gaddar’s birth anniversary in Hyderabad recently, came down heavily on Sajay Kumar and the BJP for their uncharitable and offensive comments on Gaddar.
The chief minister said that if that was the stance of Bandi Sanjay Kumar and the BJP, he then would rename the street on which the BJP office stood after Gaddar. This way the BJP would have to mention Gaddar’s name all the time in all its correspondence with others.
In continuation of the flaming row, Sanjay Kumar hit back at Revanth Reddy and dared him to rename Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar if he has guts instead of naming the street where the BJP office is located after Gaddar.
He asked Revanth Reddy to desist from indulging in vindictive politics and naming the street where the BJP office is located after Gaddar after the centre had not conferred the Padma award on Gaddar.
The rapier thrusts between the two leaders began after Revanth Reddy expressed dissatisfaction over the centre not bothering to confer the Padma award posthumously to Gaddar.
He was unhappy that of the 139 Padma awards announced, only two came for Telangana— Padma Vibhushan for Dr D Nageshwar Reddy (medicine) and Manda Krishna Madiga (public affairs). He said he would write to the prime minister on the gross injustice done to Telangana state.
To this, Sanjay Kumar had said that Padma awards cannot be conferred on people like Gaddar who was responsible for the death of several BJP leaders and policemen.
He said that there was no way the Padma Award could be conferred on Gaddar as he had a Maoist background. Sanjay further said that conferring Padma awards to such persons was like “spitting on the graves” of the police officers who died in their fight against Maoists. He wondered how Revanth Reddy could send the name of someone into whose activities the NIA had conducted an investigation.
Giving a Padma award to those who championed Naxalism is like spitting on the graves of martyred police officers and BJP karyakartas who fell victim to this ideology.
It is a betrayal to the families of these brave officers. How can the state even consider honoring a person… pic.twitter.com/aR4ECk2hnh
— Bandi Sanjay Kumar (@bandisanjay_bjp) January 27, 2025
Sanjay also said that Revanth Reddy should remember that it was the Congress regime which hunted him down and also it was the Congress which used him as a go-between with the Maoists for talks with the ultras.
He said Revanth Reddy cannot lobby for one who carries the guilt of the death of several policemen and BJP leaders.
Though tensions have eased, the embers continue to burn.
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
