The announcement was made in Delhi late on Tuesday by AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal, who said party president Mallikarjun Kharge had decided to go with Revanth Reddy on the basis of the report submitted by central observers D.K. Shivakumar and Manikrao Thakare.
The majority of the 64 MLAs had favoured the 54-year-old at the Congress Legislature Party meeting held in Hyderabad on Monday morning.
Asked how the party planned to accommodate senior leaders who had expressed their aspirations, Venugopal said: “We will recognise all the senior leaders. This is going to be a team and not a one-man show.”He said the new government would provide “maximum governance to the people of Telangana” and “fulfil the aspirations of the people of Telangana, especially the guarantees which we gave to the people”.The party has won 64 of the state’s 119 seats.
Named “Abhaya Hastam” (helping hand), the Congress has promised Rs 2,500 a month to women, cooking gas at Rs 500 and free travel in all Telangana state transport buses under the Mahalakshmi scheme, Rythu Bharosa financial assistance to farmers, 200 units of free electricity under Gruha Jyothi, land for the homeless to build houses under Indramma Indlu housing scheme, Rs 5 lakh educational assistance under Yuva Vikasam, monthly pension of Rs 6,000 to senior citizens, widows and single women, among others, under a pension scheme named Cheyutha.
Congress Legislature Party leader in the outgoing Assembly Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Lok Sabha member and former state party chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had also thrown their hats in the ring.A party source in Hyderabad said that while Vikramarka wanted to be the sole deputy chief minister, Uttam Kumar Reddy is likely to be made the next state party chief, a position he had held for about six years until 2021.
Revanth Reddy was widely recognised for galvanising the party at a time when the BJP was considered the main challenger to the Bharath Rashtra Samithi. The Congress had won just 19 seats in 2018.A leader who has been part of almost every political spectrum, Revanth Reddy was associated with RSS student wing ABVP and was a part of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (as BRS was known then) from 2001. He quit in 2006 and later joined the Telugu Desam Party of N. Chandrababu Naidu. He joined the Congress in 2017 and won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Malkajgiri. He succeeded Uttam Kumar Reddy as Congress chief in 2021, a position he is likely to relinquish soon.🗓️🏛️
