It is a known fact that Telangana CM Revanth Reddy has old ties with the RSS. Old habits die hard, and surprisingly it appears that he is still helping the BJP win some elections in Telangana. The very reason why his political opponents say he is a BJP man at heart.
Observing a trend of a few polls that took place in Telangana in the last five years, a clear pattern emerges that Revanth is indeed going soft on the BJP even at the cost of his own party. In the last five years, Telangana state saw elections to 119 Assembly seats, five bypolls, and 150 divisions in the GHMC. Shockingly, every time the BJP wins a seat, it is mainly because the Congress deliberately fielded a weak candidate.
Here are some popular examples with data:
In November 2020, in the Dubbaka bypoll, Congress candidate Srinivas Reddy polled just 22,196 votes, losing his deposit. This namesake contest paved the way for the victory of the BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao, who won by a whisker (1,079 votes).
The scenario became more evident in the Huzurabad bypoll in November 2021. Revanth Reddy gave a ticket to a fresh face and a non-local candidate to help BJP’s Eatela Rajender. In the fiercely fought poll, Congress candidate Balmoor Venkat lost his deposit by securing a mere 3,012 votes.
In November 2022, in the keenly contested Munugode bypoll too, Congress did help the BJP by losing the deposit (23,864 votes). However, the Congress’s plan to help Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy failed here.
Coming to the GHMC elections, for the first time, BJP won a good number of seats in GHMC. The interesting part is that Congress did not put up a serious fight in any of the 48 seats won by BJP. It lost the deposit in all the seats which were won by BJP.
The same happened during the recent Assembly elections too where the Congress fielded weak nominees against BJP’s top leaders. The then MPs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Arvind Dharmapuri, Soyam Bapu Rao, and MLAs Eatela Rajender, Raghunandan Rao, Raja Singh didn’t find any threat from the Congress. Anyhow, the BRS Party defeated all of them except Raja Singh in Goshamahal where it came second.
It can be a mere coincidence, but the recent developments indicate that it might be a deliberate attempt by Revanth Reddy to keep the BJP happy. The trend is continuing in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections as well. It appears that the Congress party has already given up in constituencies like Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Chevella, and Malkajgiri. In these segments, the Congress has either fielded weak candidates or not taken the contest seriously.
As the BRS Party alleges, it looks like Revanth Reddy is in cahoots with his ‘Bade Bhai’ PM Narendra Modi. Despite heavy criticism from the BRS leaders that Revanth will join the BJP, he never condemned nor responded to those statements.