By: Fatima Hasan
The Congress Party may be on tenterhooks in electing its national president but it has replaced its president to head its Telangana unit. This comes at a time when the Congress has lost ground in its once-ruled State. The new Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy was elected as the Member of Parliament two years ago. The two-time MLA has a great background to dig and think of positivities of why Congress opted to choose him.
His achievement of becoming a MP directly from MLA, that too, in a new constituency has a lot to do with his portrayal as a charismatic politician. This could be one reason why he was chosen for TPCC. After leaving TDP and joining Congress in 2017, Revanth Reddy witnessed his first defeat in Assembly elections in 2018 but soon he was able to garner support to win Lok Sabha seat in 2019. He was appointed as one of the three working presidents of TPCC. This may have helped in establishing his foothold in Telangana Congress and wooing party supporters.
Although leaders from SC, ST and BC communities were aspiring for the post, the Congress again tended to choose its leader from the Reddy community for the second time in a row. Reddy community is very powerful and regarded as the major forward caste in Telangana. Last December, after the Congress debacle in GHMC elections, the then PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy stepped down to work devotedly in his parliamentary constituency. However, he continued in the position till Revanth Reddy took over and there is no evidence of open dissidence from the party rank and file though there may be internal bickering. Interestingly, on the other side, even the BJP has promoted G Kishan Reddy to cabinet rank in Narendra Modi cabinet and hence the BJP face in Telangana. Thus, there are two Reddys pitted against one another to uplift the rival parties against the ruling TRS in the State.
Will Revanth bring fruits to Telangana Congress?
If at all this is going to happen, it will happen over the next 3 to 4 years. In the present scenario, Congress is merely a cipher and does not have strong presence anywhere in India. Even the old experienced party leaders have failed from 2014 till day to revive the Congress. It will be a daunting task for Revanth Reddy to garner support for the party across all 119 assembly constituencies spread over 17 parliamentary constituencies in the State. He has to work on the ground first before taking any challenges.
In the recent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, Congress could only manage to win 19 assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats. Now, there is only one assembly by-election in Huzurabad constituency for Revanth to prove himself —whether he is best bet or not. Next assembly elections are due in December 2023. In the spam of 3 years, he can work on at least improving the party tally. The party may take time for coming back to power and the factors of anti-incumbency against the incumbent CM should also work in its favour . There should also not be any internal bickering among the party leaders if the party has to move forward.
(EOM)
