An open revolt is reportedly taking place against the potential selection of Revanth Reddy as the next Chief Minister of Telangana from within the state unit of the Congress party. As per reports, the swearing-in ceremony for the new Telangana CM has likely been postponed from 4th December, as there are reports of infighting within the party’s state unit after it secured a victory in the Telangana state assembly election. After the Congress’ legislative party meeting failed to build a consensus, the decision for the next Chief Minister was left to Party President Mallikarjun Kharge.
As per reports, Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, who is the observer for Telangana, is en route to the National Capital as sources indicate that a few leaders like Uttam Reddy and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka are not willing to concede. They reportedly don’t want to occupy a subordinate role by letting Congress appoint Revanth Reddy as the Chief Minister.
Notably, Congress secured 64 seats in the recently concluded state assembly elections, crossing the halfway mark of 60 seats on its own. On the other hand, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) which was in power for a decade, only won 39 seats.
As per media reports citing sources, Anumula Revanth Reddy is the front-runner to become the new Chief Minister of Telangana. However, his potential deputy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and others are unwilling to concede and take the position of his subordinate, as per reports.
Meanwhile, the supporters of Telangana Congress President Revanth Reddy have been staging a protest in front of the Raj Bhawan in Hyderabad. The protesters are demanding that their leader should be appointed as the Chief Minister.
Incidentally, similar reports of infighting over the Chief Minister’s post were also witnessed in Karnataka between the camps of Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and CM Siddaramaiah before their appointment earlier this year.
According to Republic Kannada, the party leadership had appointed Shivakumar as the observer for Telangana and he was still camped in Hyderabad despite the start of the winter assembly session in Belgavi today.
Republic Kannada, citing sources, reported that Shivakumar was scheduled to catch a charter flight to New Delhi at around 8 pm. This comes amid reports that the Congress party is in a hurry as it fears its winning candidates could be poached ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
Before the announcement of election results on 3rd December, Shivakumar claimed that former CM KCR approached some of his candidates. He had said, “We know that they are trying to trap us. Our candidates have informed us that they have been approached by CM (KCR) himself, so we have the information.” However, BRS leader Dasoju Sravan rejected his claims and called it ‘stupid.’