There is an interesting urban legend in circulation in Telangana about Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. It was sometime after the December 2018 assembly elections, in which Revanth Reddy had lost the Kodangal seat to Patnam Mahender Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). When they met in Hyderabad, Revanth Reddy asked Mahender Reddy, “Anna, who do you think will be the next CM?” A confident Mahender Reddy smiled and said, “Who else? BRS will come back to power.” Revanth Reddy reportedly told him, “Anna, I will be the next CM.” Mahender Reddy was perplexed for a second and laughed heartily. He couldn’t hold on to his MLA seat, yet he was talking about becoming the next CM!
Though he lost as an MLA, Revanth Reddy quickly bounced back by winning the Malkajgiri Parliament seat, the country's most populous Lok Sabha constituency, in the 2019 general elections. It was an important comeback for him after suffering the first electoral defeat of his political career. According to the same urban legend, Revanth Reddy predicted that if he became the PCC chief, he could eventually win the 2023 assembly elections, as Telangana was ready to boot out BRS. “In Telangana, people won’t bear any more than two terms,” said Pilli Srinivasa Rao, a civil society leader who predicted the party’s victory six months ahead of the elections, talking to THE WEEK before the 2023 elections. It was this understanding that made Revanth Reddy go all guns blazing.
However, when he was appointed PCC chief in July 2021, he faced unprecedented opposition from party leaders. The writing on the wall was very clear. He was an outsider who had spent most of his political life in the Telugu Desam Party and had joined the Congress only after the TDP's decline in Telangana. Revanth Reddy met the senior leaders and tried to pacify them. The Congress high command, however, stood firmly behind him despite the resistance. He showed his political panache by visiting the media houses. He had meetings with editors, and those meetings would get considerable coverage. With the media meetings, he demonstrated that he enjoyed strong media support. Eventually, the opposition within the party gradually subsided. Revanth Reddy had anticipated the resistance and managed it.
According to Addanki Dayakar, a Congress MLC and spokesperson, Revanth’s CM plans predated his joining the Congress party. “Even when he was a TDP MLA, he told me he would be the next CM and was making plans accordingly. He joined Congress, offset his MLA defeat with victory in the Malkajgiri MP seat, became PCC president, and the rest was history. He had a perfect plan, and his execution was impeccable,” Dayakar recalled.
After settling down as PCC president, the real trouble started. In his party, there were not many supporters of his view that the Congress would come to power in 2023. When he said the party would form the next government, even district leaders did not believe him. However, the Congress leadership had faith in Revanth Reddy’s abilities. In a previous conversation, then AICC Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore told THE WEEK that the party leadership had placed full trust in him. He worked to instil confidence among local leaders through booth-level training and several organisational programmes. He also played a central role in organising Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in Telangana, which gave the Congress organisation a fresh sense of momentum. Although the party suffered setbacks in the Huzurabad and Munugode by-elections in 2022, the high command retained its confidence in him. The resistance continued even in the election year. Despite signs of organisational weakness and no clear wave for Congress, Revanth Reddy entered the campaign confidently.
That’s because Revanth Reddy was no regular politician. Recollecting the campaign days, Dayakar said Revanth Reddy told him the Congress would get a minimum of 65 seats and a maximum of 90. Sriram Karri, then resident editor of Deccan Chronicle, also gave the same 65 number in a private conversation before the 2023 assembly elections. Congress won 64 seats, and its ally, the CPI, won one, taking the alliance tally to 65. Dayakar feels Revanth Reddy’s perfectionism and military-like planning make him stand out. “Not just in Telangana, in the entire country, Revanth Reddy is a different kind of politician in his generation,” the MLC said.
A look at Revanth Reddy’s political journey shows why he was a different politician. He started his political career as an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during his college days. He then contested as an independent candidate and became a ZPTC (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency) member from Midjil mandal in 2006. He also contested the 2007 MLC election independently from Mahbubnagar district and won. While serving as an MLC, he had to choose between Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress and Chandrababu Naidu-led opposition TDP. Revanth made the unusual choice of joining the opposition. Within two years, he won the Kodangal assembly seat in 2009, defeating five-time MLA Gurunath Reddy, and established himself as one of the TDP's fastest-rising leaders in Telangana. He later became the party's working president in the State before quitting in 2017. He left the TDP only after it lost political relevance in Telangana.
His involvement in the alleged cash-for-vote case made him a direct target of then chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Their rivalry intensified over time. As a mark of protest, Revanth Reddy breached police barricades, touched the gates of the chief minister's residence and dramatically declared that he would remove the BRS chief from office. Subsequently, the BRS government sent him to prison for allegedly flying a drone over the CM's farmhouse. He was later allowed temporary release to attend his daughter’s engagement.
In the run-up to the 2023 assembly elections, Revanth Reddy explained his extraordinary hunger for victory and his electoral record. “When I contested for president of the prestigious Jubilee Hills Club, I was a nobody. But I had planned, executed the plan and won the election. In 2009, I was given the Kodangal assembly ticket just 15 days before the elections, and I defeated the five-time MLA. So, I plan, and I win elections,” he said in an interview. Dayakar said he saw the way crowds moved to Revanth Reddy’s speeches and realised he was campaigning alongside the future Chief Minister.
When THE WEEK asked Prof. K. Nageshwar, a political commentator and Revanth Reddy’s former benchmate in the Legislative Council, whether the chief minister had predicted the future, Nageshwar said Revanth Reddy had told him in 2007 that he would become CM one day. However, Nageshwar refused to call it a prediction. “I am sure he wanted to become CM, but it was in no way a prediction. What differentiates Revanth Reddy from other leaders is that he has constantly moved towards his goal. He first became a ZPTC member, then an MLC, and within two years an MLA. When Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated, he became the working president of the TDP in Telangana. When he left the TDP, he did not join the ruling BRS, as many of his colleagues did. Instead, he chose the Congress when it was at its weakest. He is probably the only leader of his generation who joined an opposition party when it was at its ebb,” Nageshwar explained. He later contested and won the Kodangal assembly seat in 2023 while serving as an MP, leading the Congress to power and becoming Telangana's second Chief Minister. His decisive actions to realise his goal, Nageshwar said, ultimately made him chief minister.
