Seniors oppose choice of Revanth Reddy as Telangana Congress chief because of his past

Hyderabad: The race for the post of Telangana state Congress chief’s post has taken an interesting turn with many senior party leaders joining hands to stall a much younger and new entrant A Revanth Reddy.

Even as there were clear indications that the Congress high command was getting ready to hand over the reins of Telangana Congress to party MP A Revanth Reddy replacing the incumbent chief Uttam Kumar Reddy, a group of senior leaders got into action and opposed the choice on the grounds that Revanth had connections with the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP.

Senior party men, including the current Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy, met the party general secretary Ahmad Patel and urged that Revanth should not be given the leadership, party sources said.

Revanth, who was earlier in Telugu Desam Party (TDP), had joined the Congress last year and was recently elected to the parliament. Those opposing Revanth say that not only he had defected from the TDP and was a relatively new comer in Congress, but in his student days he was active in Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of RSS and had links with the parent organisation.

Apparently, the representation had its impact on the party high command as the AICC general secretary in charge of Telangana affairs RC Khuntia announced there were no immediate plans of change in the state leadership. He also denied any discussions on the issue in the party adding that the focus of the party would be on winning the forthcoming elections to the municipal bodies in the state.