The chief minister, though visibly displeased, allowed the party leadership to step in and smooth ruffled feathers. The party’s eyes are set on the upcoming Jubilee Hills assembly bypoll.
Published Oct 24, 2025 | 12:33 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 24, 2025 | 12:33 PM
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and other ministers during a meeting. (X)
Synopsis: The political storm that had been brewing in the Telangana Congress appears to have blown over, for now. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is understood to have taken the floor and urged his Cabinet colleagues to preserve unity at all costs, especially with the upcoming Jubilee Hills bypoll in mind.
The political storm that had been brewing in the Telangana Congress after Endowments Minister Konda Surekha’s daughter, Sushmita Patel, made allegations against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, appears to have blown over, for now.
Tensions are said to have eased after Surekha tendered an unconditional apology to the chief minister during the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, 23 October, for her daughter’s “emotional outburst.”
After the official agenda was wrapped up, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is understood to have taken the floor and urged his Cabinet colleagues to preserve unity at all costs.
He reminded them that “a house divided cannot stand,” and warned that the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would waste no time exploiting any cracks within the party. “We must speak in one voice,” he reportedly said, cautioning that internal squabbles could undo the government’s achievements.
The optics of reconciliation were unmistakable. Surekha was seated beside Information and Public Relations Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy — the very colleague she had recently locked horns with. The gesture was widely seen as a peace offering. She also publicly apologised to the chief minister, explaining that her daughter’s remarks were made out of distress, not defiance.
“My daughter spoke out of emotion when the police came to our house. She couldn’t bear the sight of officers storming in. Her words were never meant to offend the chief minister,” she said.
The visible warmth between Surekha and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy at the post-meeting briefing was hard to miss, with the latter referring to her as “Surekha Akka” (sister). It was intended to signal that the rift has ended, and now it is a closed chapter.
According to sources, as soon as the trouble had erupted, the Congress high command intervened, preventing the incident — triggered by Sushmita Patel’s remarks — from snowballing into a full-blown crisis.
The chief minister, though visibly displeased, allowed the party leadership to step in and smooth ruffled feathers.
Sushmita had accused Revanth Reddy of orchestrating a police visit to their home in connection with a case against Surekha’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Sumanth N, who allegedly threatened executives of a cement factory in Nalgonda district at gunpoint.
Sushmita claimed the raid was politically motivated — a vendetta for her mother’s opposition to the chief minister’s alleged plan to allocate endowment land to his brother for a real estate project’s access road.
Surekha, she said, had instead proposed a fair land-swap deal of equal value for the Endowments Department.
Much earlier to this, Surekha had crossed swords with Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy over ₹71 crore worth of Medaram Jathara contracts. She accused him of awarding tenders without her consent. Ponguleti countered that he acted on the Chief Minister’s instructions and that the process was transparent and above board.
Revanth Reddy’s call for unity at the Cabinet meeting also referred to a series of recent verbal duels that had rocked his Cabinet. Scheduled Castes Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman Kumar and Backward Class Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar had traded barbs in public. Their exchanges — sharp and laced with sarcasm — had become the talk of the party corridors.
Not long after, Laxman Kumar clashed with G Vivek Venkataswamy, accusing him of having a condescending attitude toward him. The friction reportedly was an offshoot of simmering caste tensions, as Vivek hails from the Mala community, considered socially dominant among the Scheduled Castes, while Laxman Kumar belongs to the Madiga community.
The chief minister is said to have been displeased with these public wrangles, reminding his colleagues that “washing dirty linen in public” only weakens the party’s image and emboldens its rivals.
For now, the storm has quietened. Smiles have replaced frowns, and the Congress camp appears to have restored an uneasy calm. But it is anybody’s guess how long this truce will last as the unity Congress always tends to break up.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
