Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 7: With the Gandhis occupying the dais, a Congress ministry headed by Anumula Revanth Reddy, chief of Telangana Congress who played a key role in the party’s thumping victory in the November 30 Assembly polls, was on Thursday sworn-in as the state’s second Chief Minister.
Mr Reddy was administered the oath of office by Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at a ceremony at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad before a crowd of nearly 1 lakh.
Besides Mr Reddy, 11 members of his cabinet took the oath of office. This included Mallu Bhatti Vikaramarka, who was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, and former Telangana Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, among those who opposed Revanth Reddy’s choice as Chief Minister. The eight others to join the cabinet are Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Damodar Rajanarasimha, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Dana Anasuya, Tummala Nageswar Rao, Konda Surekha and Jupally Krishna Rao.
Mr Reddy arrived at the venue in an open jeep accompanied by Mrs Sonia Gandhi to send home a message that he enjoyed the strong support of the former Congress president for whom the people of Telangana has special reverence as “Sonia Amma” (mother), the main driving force in the creation of Telangana as a separate state bifurcating from Andhra Pradesh, even when the Congress in the then undivided state was strongly opposed to the bifurcation.
The ceremony was attended by the Gandhi family – Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionaries, Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh Siddaramaiah and Sukhvinder Singh and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shiv Kumar were present during the swearing in ceremony. Before he took the oath of office, Mr Reddy and Mrs Gandhi held a victory lap inside the stadium in an open vehicle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Mr Reddy on the occasion, assuring his full support to Telangana’s progress.
Soon after he took oath as the chief minister, Mr Reddy fulfilled a key campaign promise, taking down the iron barricades in front of his official residence. Even before the oath-taking ceremony had finished, there was frantic activity at the Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad, the Chief Minister’s official residence.
Several bulldozers, tractors and construction workers were seen outside the residence uprooting the iron rods. During his intense poll campaign, Mr Reddy had said he would remove the barricades if Congress came to power allowing the people an easy access to the chief minister.
The 54-year-old is only the second chief minister who has been at the helm of Telangana since its birth in 2014. Mr Reddy is known among fellow politicians and party workers for his never-say-die attitude.
Mr Reddy and his cabinet now face the daunting task of managing the bleak coffers and fulfilling the “six guarantees” that the Congress party made during the run-up to the elections. The Congress’s robust campaign highlighting the six guarantees is said to have been one of the reasons for the party’s victory. However, finding the funds to fulfil them will be a herculean task. The most attractive among the “six” is free travel for women in Telangana State Road Transport Corporation buses.
Widely seen as a near-automatic choice for Chief Minister, Mr Reddy, a former Telegu Desam Party (TDP) man who switched over to the Congress in 2017, still had to see off two challengers – Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka. Both are Congress veterans with decades of service to the party, both played key roles in the campaign that delivered Sunday’s win, and both expected to be ‘rewarded’ for their loyalty.
For now, any discontent at losing the top post to Mr Reddy has been put to bed by making one a Deputy Chief Minister and the other a minister, most likely with a high-profile portfolio. And Mrs Gandhi’s public show of support should strengthen the new Chief Minister’s hand.
Second, it also ups Mr Reddy’s likeability factor among the people of Telangana, millions of whom are firm admirers of Sonia Gandhi particularly, if not the Congress as a party. Mr Reddy may not have needed the helping hand – he is already hugely popular – but a boost could never hurt.
The Congress trounced the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi, ruling Telangana since its formation in 2014, by winning 65 out of 119 Assembly seats.
Revanth Reddy, referred to as Tiger Revanth by his supporters, was appointed Telangana Congress president in 2021. Over the past two years, Mr Reddy led a spirited campaign against the KCR-led government and was seen leading street protests and public demonstrations over a host of issues. The Congress’s efforts bore fruit and the party trumped the BRS.
Mr Reddy, however, had a challenge waiting for him. Soon after the victory, his detractors within the party opposed his elevation as Chief Minister. They pointed to corruption allegations against him and alleged that he had taken money in exchange for poll tickets.
Mr Reddy had fought hard to get his loyalists tickets, knowing well that he would not get the Chief Minister post if he did not have the support of a big chunk of MLAs. This worked well for him and the Congress leadership, in no mood to upset the apple cart, endorsed Mr Reddy’s claim to the top post.
Mr Revanth Reddy was expected to take oath at the designated time 1.04 p.m., but was delayed by a few minutes in reaching the venue. With huge number of vehicles thronging the venue, traffic went haywire and the convoys of the VVIPs were held up for some time on the roads delaying the commencement of the proceedings.
The VVIP convoy in which Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka and Mr Kharge, accompanied by Revanth Reddy and Mr Vikramarka was caught in traffic jam near the swearing-in ceremony venue. Siddaramaiah and his Deputy Shiv Kumar got down their vehicles and walked for some distance to reach the LB stadium in time.