Congress’s Revanth Reddy rises as a leader, but bar set by BRS in Kodangal high

However, as the campaign for Telangana wraps up Tuesday, and the Congress looks at the ballot boxes with hope, a lot has to do with the morphing of Revanth into a big stage leader during the course of the elections, addressing at least four public meetings a day.

Farmers Chakali Hanumanth (75) and Yadalam Kashappa (65) discuss politics outside a shop in Daulatabad village in Kodangal. (Express photo/Rahul V Pisharody)

On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra by his side, Revanth addressed one such giant rally, full of cheering crowds and catchy music.

Revanth now bears the huge responsibility to take the Congress close to power in a state that has remained out of its reach since Telangana was formed in 2014, despite the party’s role at the Centre in its creation.

This is a huge leap for a leader who was in virtual oblivion from October 2017, when he joined the Congress from the TDP, till June 2021, when he was picked as the Telangana PCC chief.

A two-time MLA from Kodangal (2009, 2014), Revanth had left the TDP under a cloud following an alleged bid to bribe a nominated MLA during a Legislative Council election.

In his first election as a Congress candidate, from Kodangal in 2018, he had lost, but had bounced back quickly, winning as the Congress MP from Malkajgiri in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Former bank employee-turned-farmer Gaddameethi Laxminarayana plucking cotton from his farm along with his brother and their wives in Kodangal. (Express photo/Rahul V Pisharody)

Since then, he has strengthened his image as a combative Opposition leader, putting in the shade senior state Congress leaders such as N Uttam Kumar Reddy, T Jayaprakash Reddy, V Hanumantha Rao, Madhu Yakshi Goud, M Shashidhar Reddy, and J Geetha Reddy, among others.

In a further boost to his profile, the Congress this time chose Revanth to take on BRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao from Kamareddy – apart from repeating him in Kodangal.

The problems within the Congress, though, are not over. The Komatireddy brothers Venkat Reddy and Raj Gopal, who hold sway in the Nalgonda region, are bitter rivals of Revanth. Uttam Reddy, a former Congress state chief, is also known to be displeased. Several veteran leaders have shown their displeasure by remaining distant from the campaign.

“Nobody in the Congress sees him as a CM candidate, which Revanth fancies himself to be,’’ a Congress leader said.

However, in Kodangal, located barely 6 km from the Telangana-Karnataka border, many supporters are coming around to the view that Revanth could be the next CM.

Restaurant owner Md Abdul Shakir, 39, at a pan shop outside his hotel in Kodangal town. (Express photo/Rahul V Pisharody)

Dattu Singh, 60, of Erranpalle village says the Congress state chief has posed the right questions and created the right narrative. The owner of an automobile store in the town, he hopes that Revanth as CM would bring to Kodangal the kind of development KCR’s home constituency Gajwel has witnessed.

“We have been backward and remained the same under the BRS. I am a beneficiary of the Rythu Bandhu scheme, but that cannot compensate for the injustice faced by my two sons, who have not got government jobs due to the faulty recruitment process… The local MLA is nothing but a voiceless puppet of KCR,” Singh says.

The BRS’s Patnam Narender Reddy, who defeated Revanth in 2018 by over 9,300 votes, is a one-term MLA.

The BJP’s Kodangal candidate is businessman and former BJYM state secretary Bantu Ramesh Kumar.

In Kodangal, located barely 6 km from the Telangana-Karnataka border, many supporters are coming around to the view that Revanth could be the next CM. (Express photo/Rahul V Pisharody)

All parties are also watching out for the ‘Gurunath Reddy’ factor. The five-poll winning streak of Gurunath from Kodangal had been ended by Revanth in 2009. In 2018, Gurunath backed the BRS’s Patnam; and Revanth lost. In the run-up to the current polls, he has joined hands with Revanth.

Recently, Kodangal hit the headlines after a group of farmers from Congress-ruled Karnataka staged a protest in the town warning voters against the party’s promises, and cautioning that long hours of power cuts may follow if the Congress won.

The Congress, which has been showcasing the “guarantees” fulfilled by its government in Karnataka, accused the BRS of sponsoring the protest.

On farmer issues though, the BRS seems to be clearly ahead, riding on its Rythu Bandhu scheme. Plucking cotton from his field beside NH163, along with his brother and wives, Gaddameethi Laxminarayana doesn’t look like the usual farmer, dressed in a trousers and a shirt.

The 34-year-old is actually an MBA and former bank employee, and says he decided to turn to farming last year after taking 55 acres on lease next to his family’s 15 acres, as “farming is more lucrative” now. “We received a loan waiver of up to Rs 1 lakh. With Rythu Bandhu financial assistance and 24-hour power supply, even barren lands are cultivable. KCR is a visionary,” Laxminarayana says.

In nearby Daulatabad, Chakali Hanumanth (75) and Yadalam Kashappa (65) ask why they would go against a party that has always helped them. A Revanth statement seeming to suggest that farmers did not need the 24 hours of free power supply they get now has also been picked up by voters.

Speaking at a meeting in the US in July, on “rational discussion on free power supply to farmers”, Revanth had said: “In Telangana, 95% of farmers have landholdings of less than 3 acres. One hour (of power) is enough to irrigate 1 acre. To irrigate the whole 3 acres, 3 hours will be sufficient. Eight hours of free power supply is enough.” The BRS is telling voters that this means that a Congress government would cut back on the 24-hour free power supply.

Says Kashappa: “No sane person or politician can say three hours is enough. We are getting 24-hour power now, why would any government reduce it?”

Farmers Gorrakodi Venkataiah (45) and Koka Chinna Bheemaiah (60) of Parsapur village also say they will vote only for the BRS, “even if the Congress offers us money”. As an autorickshaw drives by with Congress campaign songs blaring at full volume, Bheemaiah says: “Revanth has not visited Kodangal even five times in the last five years and our MLA has been amidst us.”

Local restaurant owner Mohammed Abdul Shakir, 39, has the same complaint with Revanth. “Everyone here loves him, but he is hardly here. Even now, he is busy touring the state for the Congress. This was the reason why he lost in 2018. He was unresponsive to public needs,” Shakir says.

While Shakir acknowledges the BRS government’s role in helping farmers – and “stopping farmer suicides” – his grouse is also its failure to “do anything for Muslims”.

The BRS is touting the new roads in the constituency and drinking water, as well as the much-delayed Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, which once completed will irrigate 12.3 lakh acres of drought-prone areas in six southern districts.

The most successful pitch for the Congress is unemployment, particularly given the anger over the frequent leak of question papers for exams held by the Telangana State Public Service Commission, halting the process to fill about 80,000 vacancies.

The Congress has promised an annual job calendar, assurance to fill 2 lakh job vacancies within a year, and a grant of Rs 5 lakh to all students to pay for their education and “empowerment”.

“Did farmers fight for Telangana statehood? No. Students and unemployed youngsters did. And yet, we stand where we had been, nine years after the state’s formation,” says Byagari Srinivas, 30, from Polepalli, who says he has been unable to find a job.

Accusing KCR of “ruining” Telangana, Srinivas says: “The BRS has to lose if we, the unemployed, have to win.”

B Ashok from Muddireddypalle says: “It is not just the youngsters who will vote against the BRS. Parents, too, are worried about the future of their children. K T Rama Rao (KCR’s son and the BRS working president) had promised to adopt and develop Kodangal in 2018. Five years later, we are still where we were.”