Telangana got its Deputy Chief Minister Thursday as 63-year-old Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, the four-time MLA from Madhira Assembly constituency in Khammam district, took his oath along with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other Ministers. The Deputy CM and Speaker-designate Gaddam Prasad Kumar are the two Mala faces in the Revanth Cabinet while C Damodar Rajanarsimha is the sole Madiga face. Both Malas and Madigas are among the Scheduled Castes (SC), which account for around 18% of Telangana's population. Vikramarka, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader of the previous Assembly, has been one of the most prominent faces of the party in this election. Months before the Assembly polls and much earlier than his party colleagues, Vikramarka began his campaign. Riding on the success of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, he embarked on his own state-wide “People’s March”, covering 1,400 km and 36 Assembly constituencies between March and June. His padyatra (foot march), among other factors, is being touted as one of the key reasons for the Congress’s resurgence in the state. His path to becoming the deputy CM was not an easy one, though. In undivided Andhra Pradesh, Vikramarka was a member of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) executive committee from 1990 to 1992, and was elected as an MLC in 2007. He went on to win his first Assembly poll from Madhira two years later and was appointed chief whip of the government till 2011. He served as the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly till 2014, when the state was bifurcated to form the new state of Telangana. The year 2018 proved to be one of the most challenging for Vikramarka. Though he retained his seat in the Assembly election and became the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) by dint of being the CLP leader, Vikramarka was pushed into virtual political oblivion as 12 of the 19 Congress MLAs later joined hands with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR, which stripped the grand old party of the status of the main Opposition. He was reduced to being the leader of just a five-member CLP when Huzurnagar MLA N Uttam Kumar Reddy resigned after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Nalgonda. Vikramarka also had to deal with the turmoil within the Telangana Congress, where infighting among rival factions had been rampant. Considered as one of the tallest Dalit leaders of the state, Vikramarka clawed his way back into the limelight through his padyatra. Braving the heat, Vikramarka set the tone not only for the Congress in this Assembly election but also succeeded in projecting himself as a major leader in the state. “It is very hot during the day but I have a job to do and that is to meet as many people as I can. We have vowed to make Telangana KCR-mukt and neither the hot sun or rain can dampen our spirits,” Vikramarka had told the Indian Express earlier in the course of his march. After losing the status of the LOP in the Assembly in 2019, Vikramarka's influence in Madhira also started to wane as the BRS’s Kamal Raju Lingala had begun to gain ground. Yet again his “People’s March”, which began on March 16 from Pipri village in Adilabad district, came to his rescue. Vikramarka’s stature grew as several of his suggestions, which he had formed through public feedback during his yatra, were taken on board for making the Congress’s manifesto as well as its Declarations on farmers, youth and minorities. Several party leaders credit his yatra for highlighting the BRS government’s failures and making people aware of the Congress’s poll promises. As a part of the yatra, Vikramarka addressed scores of rallies and corner meetings. He met people from all walks of life – including tribals, Dalits, minorities, downtrodden sections, farmers, unemployed youth, coal miners in Singareni, students, artisans and weavers. He also visited the Sripada Yellampally project in Mancherial and examined crops damaged due to unseasonal rains in Ramagundam, Dharmapuri, Huzurabad, Husnabad and Waradhanapet constituencies. He also visited the Kakatiya university campus at the invitation of the University Students’ JAC and had an interactive session with them. Vikramarka’s yatra enthused the Congress cadre in Telangana and brightened the poll prospects of the party. His close, personal interaction with people had been praised by several senior Congress leaders, including the party’s Telangana in-charge Manik Rao Thakre, who had said that it would pave the path to a Congress victory in the state.
