Rahul Gandhi with Revanth Reddy
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 3: Revanth Reddy is now poised to take revenge from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR). At the time of penning this piece, the Congress was poised to take the power in Hyderabad. The Congress is set to go past the half way mark in Telangana.
In the House of 119 MLAs, the Congress is winning more than 65 seats to comfortably take power in Hyderabad. The Congress will thus be taking power from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi of KCR which served two terms in power since the creation of Telangana in 2013.
A few years ago, Revanth Reddy of the Congress was jailed by KCR and he spent the day behind the bar on the day of the marriage of his daughter. He had vowed to take revenge on KCR. On the day of the election verdict, Revanth Reddy appears finally taking revenge on KCR.
Much against the claims of the local political observers that Telangana will give a split verdict, the state has given a clear mandate in favour of the Congress. The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ of the Congress led by party’s former president Rahul Gandhi looks to have helped the party stage a strong comeback in the state.
Incidentally, KCR while leading the campaign for the creation of Telangana had been pandering to former president of the Congress Sonia Gandhi. She was being hailed as a goddess in Telangana parts of the united Andhra Pradesh. KCR was leading the Telangana campaign by appealing to ‘Sonia Amma’. It may be recalled that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power at the Centre with Manmohan Singh as the prime minister.
Political observers recall that KCR had impressed upon Sonia Gandhi that the Congress would rule the state if Telangana state was created. But once the state was created, KCR true to his image of being a political maverick floated his own political party. The Congress was wiped out from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This was a major setback for the Congress.
The decline of the Congress in the national politics also coincided with the party’s loss in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Now that the Congress is poised to wrest power in Telangana, the state appears to have paid off the debt to Sonia Gandhi. The Congress has exceedingly done well across Telangana with the people making clear that they want a change in the state. With the Congress reviving its old workers base, the party became active a year ahead of the Assembly elections with Revanth Reddy bringing the much needed energy in the cadre.
Sonia Gandhi didn’t campaign in Telangana unlike Karnataka where she had addressed one rally. In place, Sonia Gandhi issued one video message for Telangana which was widely circulated by the party in the state. The Congress while making gains from the Bharat Jodo Yatra made strong gains in the southern, central and northern parts of Telangana. The northern parts of Telangana were seen as the key areas of the BJP but the people backed the Congress in the election.
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