Congress Telangana President A Revanth Reddy greets party workers and supporters celebrating the party's lead during the counting of votes for Telangana Assembly elections, in Hyderabad, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023.
Credit: PTI Photo
From a ZPTC member in 2006 to becoming the chief minister of Telangana, Anumula Revanth Reddy has come a long way in his 17-year political journey. A passionate artist, the 54-year-old is fondly called ‘Palamuru Bidda’, by his admirers.
In 2007, he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) as an independent candidate. Revanth Reddy who is from Mahbubnagar later joined TDP and was elected to the then-united Andhra Pradesh assembly from Kodangal in 2009. He was again elected to the Telangana assembly in 2014 on a TDP ticket. A member of ABVP during his student days, he also briefly worked for RSS mouthpiece, Jagrithi Telugu weekly in Hyderabad.
Revanth never tried to hide his association with RSS during his formative years. He admitted that as he aged, he started to oppose the RSS ideology and looked at other secular entities.
The only blot in his career was when he was caught in a sting operation conducted by Telangana ACB, where he was seen offering money to an independent MLC to vote for a TDP candidate in an MLC election in 2015. He was sent to jail. While out on bail, he returned home in a huge rally. It was then he twirled his moustache and challenged TRS supremo KCR. Eight years on, Revanth has dethroned KCR.
Revanth Reddy was credited for Congress’ thumping victory in the recently concluded elections. He was the face of the party in Telangana.
When he joined Congress in 2017 and became the PCC chief in 2021, he faced stiff resistance from senior leaders in the party. But, that did not deter him and he worked tirelessly to bring down the KCR government. He successfully united the warring groups in the party, which ultimately paved the way for the thumping victory over BRS.
For Congress, which had never won 60 seats from the Telangana region over the last 40 years, Revanth Reddy did the unthinkable and this was only solace for the party which faced defeats in the Hindi heartland and Mizoram.