The outgoing year-2023 heralded a new era in Telangana state politics with the 138-year-old Congress grabbing power in the assembly elections from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi headed by former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who ruled the state for almost 10 years like a monarch who was considered to be undaunted and invincible by his followers.
It was politically the most interesting year for all the major political parties – the Congress, the BRS and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which witnessed several twists and turns in their political journey. Ultimately, it was the Congress which had the last laugh by trouncing KCR and relegated the BJP to a single digit in the assembly.
The entire credit for bringing the Congress to power will definitely go to Pradesh Congress Committee president Anumula Revanth Reddy, who gained as much credence in the party in Telangana, as former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy had between 1999 and 2009 in the combined Andhra Pradesh regime.
At a time when the party was facing a turbulent situation due to the defeat in the Munugode by-election in which it lost the deposit and the BJP graph was steadily rising due to aggressive campaign by its former president Bandi Sanjay through his Praja Sangrama Yatra, Revanth Reddy managed to lead the party from the front, braving the dissidence from seniors.
Several senior Congress leaders like Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy and Yeleti Maheshwar Reddy had defected to the BJP, questioning the style of functioning of Revanth Reddy, while others like Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, D Sridhar Babu, T Jayaprakash Reddy were gunning for Revanth’s head.
Thans to Revanth’s leadership abilities and his initiative taken during the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi in October 2022, the high command reposed total faith in Revanth Reddy and gave him a free hand in the party affairs.
The hosting of Congress Working Committee held its meeting in Hyderabad on September 16 and 17, culminating in a massive public meeting of Sonia Gandhi on the outskirts of Hyderabad, gave a new lease of life to the party and announced implementation of six guarantees for the people of Telangana brightened its prospects.
On the other hand, the BJP, which was the front runner for power early 2023, lost its momentum following replacement of Bandi Sanjay with mild-natured G Kishan Reddy as the state BJP chief. The party has not taken up any programmes, demoralising the leaders and cadre and it led to the talk that the BJP central leadership had a secret understanding with the BRS, as was evident from lack of any action against KCR’s daughter Kavitha in Delhi liquor scam.
Several leaders from other parties like former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former minister Jupalli Krishna Rao from the BRS, who were planning to join the BJP dropped their plans and joined the Congress. Similarly, senior BJP leaders like G Vivek, M Narasimhulu and even actress-turned-former MP Vijayashanti defected to the Congress, ahead of the assembly elections.
The BJP did not recover after that though the BJP top leaders like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah made whirlwind tours during the elections to undo the damage by making promises like appointing an OBC as the CM candidate and categorisation of SC reservations.
As expected, Revanth Reddy became the chief minister on December 7 and he has already started establishing his mark on the administration. He got the iron barricades of Pragati Bhavan demolished threw it open for them, renaming it as Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan.
He has now launched “Praja Palana” (People’s Rule), taking the administration to the doorsteps of the common man, to identify the beneficiaries of various government schemes and redress their grievances. His government also released white papers on the financial position of Telangana to explain to the people how the previous BRS government pushed the state into a debt trap.
For KCR, the year 2023 proved to be a disaster, as all his plans to make it big at the national level went topsy-turvy. He tried to project himself as Desh Ki Neta, by expanding his party network to other states, particularly Maharashtra and Delhi, but the defeat in the Telangana elections at the fag end of the year sealed all his plans.
His aggressive attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his confrontationist approach towards Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan did not fetch him any mileage. Finally, when he did not pursue the case of poaching of BRS MLAs by the BJP and the Centre going soft on taking action against his daughter Kavitha in the Delhi liquor scam brought him a lot of bad name.
The leakage of question papers of various recruitment tests conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) and the huge damages caused to Medigadda barrage of the mighty Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project also damaged the reputation of KCR.
All these developments led to the debacle of the BRS in the assembly elections. The BRS is now making desperate attempts to regain its lost ground in the Lok Sabha elections.