Revanth Reddy: The leader of the Telangana Congress campaign

Barely two years after being named the state unit president of the Congress, fifty-four-year-old Revanth Reddy led the party to victory in Telangana.

Revanth Reddy, 54, a former Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA who first gained experience in the right-wing student union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has barely been president of the Telangana Congress for two years. He has guided the historic party to a spectacular win in the state’s assembly elections.

Old-timers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Revanth Reddy took over as Congress state president in 2021. At that point, he had been a member of the Congress for more than four years, during which time the party had failed to unseat Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). By winning byelections and gaining four MLAs in the state of Telangana by 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had also started to gain traction in the state. With the help of their former party chief Bandi Sanjay, the BJP quickly established itself as a formidable force in the state of Telangana.

“We in the Congress convened at this time and decided that we had to up our game,” stated Congress spokesperson Srikanth Bhandaru. Then, Revanth Reddy assumed command of the story and assumed a leadership role. Reddy is credited with mobilizing Congressmen to bring all the opposing factions together and put an end to senior congressmen’s dissension that had started to lean towards the BJP.

Reddy started visiting constituencies in 2022, and his campaign was starting to yield results. The BJP’s blunder of overthrowing Bandi Sanjay and installing a submissive Even before the election season began, Kishan Reddy helped the Congress take the lead. Former minister and working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), KT Rama Rao, told HT earlier that the Congress had surpassed the BJP as the second-largest party. The Congress, which was trying to make inroads in Southern India, was only bolstered by the Karnataka victory.

Revanth Reddy was able to persuade over thirty-five BRS leaders at different levels to defect and join the Congress after the elections were declared, thereby fortifying the party.

“This year’s February padayatra marked a turning point in his life. He started attacking the family and going straight after KCR. No Congress leader had previously dared to do this, according to Hyderabad-based campaign strategist Hari Kasula, founder of PsyBe. Another factor in Reddy’s confidence was the Gandhis’ support for him. “Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi observed that the Telangana cadre was favoring Reddy. He speaks like a local because he is from Kodangal, the Congress spokesperson said.

Manick Rao Thakre, the state election chief, and Sunil Kanugolu, who gave the party a strategy for winning over Telangana voters, contributed actively to Revanth Reddy’s campaign in the lead-up to the election. Kanugolu’s team planned a district-by-district campaign to assist the local Congress leaders in presenting a compelling story to counter KCR’s emotional statehood pitch, while Thakre was successful in persuading the former Congress leaders in the BJP to return to their hometown. Reddy’s availability and oratory skills also appear to have made an impression on the locals, who viewed KCR primarily as a farm-house CM.

The caste system, according to many in the Congress, also favored Reddy. Reddy will join the group of Reddys who helped the Congress party win Telugu state (formerly the united Andhra Pradesh) if he is indeed named chief minister. Revanth’s name could be seen on the board at the Gandhi Bhavan entrance in Hyderabad, from Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in the 1950s to Marri Channa Reddy in the 1970s to K Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy in the 90s, YS Rajasekhar Reddy and Kiran Kumar Reddy in the 2000s.