Member of Parliament Revanth Reddy has been chosen as the new Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief to revamp the Congress, which has been badly affected by the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
The decision to change the Congress leadership comes at a crucial time when the state political landscape is undergoing a massive change.
Revanth’s background highlights his rise from mandal level politics as an independent ZPTC (local body) representative in 2006, before becoming Member of Legislative Council (MLC) in 2008 and joining the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to become a close confident of Chandrababu Naidu.
However, he quit as working president of Telangana TDP, and joined the Congress in 2017 to win two terms as MLA in 2009 and 2014 from Kodangal Assembly constituency.
The formation of a separate Telangana state witnessed him emerging as a fierce critic of KCR and his administration.
Earlier – in what was highlighted as a cash-for-votes-scam — Revanth had been accused in 2015 of bribing a nominated MLA in seeking support for TDP candidate in the Legislative Council elections.
While he was imprisoned following arrest by the state Anti Corruption Bureau, the incident shook up both Telugu states with the TDP Chief and then-CM Chandrababu Naidu’s name being linked.
2018 witnessed Revanth losing the Kodangal MLA seat, but winning the Malkajgiri Parliament seat a few months later. However, in March 2020, Revanth was arrested and jailed by Cyberabad police for recording visuals via drone camera at a farmhouse allegedly owned by Minister KT Rama Rao in Janwada village on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, his 15 years of political life has seen Revanth becoming one of the biggest politicians having sizable mass base and youth appeal. With his leadership, the Congress hopes to regain lost ground against the TRS, while also fending off the new opposition BJP that is positioning itself as the strong alternative to KCR.
