Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy has given his first media interview after taking over the reins of the state to Andhra Jyothy and ABN-Andhra Jyothy managing editor Vemuri Radhakrishna as promised a couple of days ago.
It appeared a completely free-wheeling interview by Radha Krishna, who is known for taking liberties in shooting off questions.
Normally in any such interviews, Radha Krishna is very casual in asking questions and has the knack of extracting answers cleverly.
Because of his proximity with Revanth Reddy in the past, it appears Radha Krishna was posing questions without any inhibitions and the chief minister, too, was at ease in answering them. This was the impression any common viewer might have got.
But a close observation of his interview with Revanth Reddy made one wonder whether it was a stage-managed show.
The entire interview appeared to be aimed at elevating the image of the chief minister and establishing him as an undaunted leader in the Congress party.
The questions were asked in such a way that an ordinary Congress leader or a worker would feel Revanth is very close to the Congress high command and nobody would be able to replace him for another five years, both as the state Congress president and as the chief minister.
Revanth Reddy also explained how he had grown to the level of the chief minister in the Congress party without any god father in the state Congress party and his advantages over other so-called seniors.
Radha Krishna deliberately asked a question how Revanth Reddy would handle the situation in the event of a Maharashtra-like situation arises in Telangana, wherein the BJP will split the Congress MLAs and form a government with the support of the BRS.
“I am not a Jana Reddy. If they make any such attempt, then, I too, will show to what extent I can go,” Revanth Reddy said, pointing out how the inability of Jana Reddy as the CLP leader led to the exodus of Congress MLAs into the BRS in the past.
All in all, it is very clear that Radha Krishna ensured a massive viewership for his channel, while Revanth Reddy used the platform to establish that nobody can replace him in the Congress party as the chief minister.