From ‘marpu kavali’ to ‘gadida guddu’, A Revanth Reddy’s campaign lifts Congress hopes

HYDERABAD: A Revanth Reddy, who led Congress to power riding on ‘Marpu kavali, Congress ravali’ (change in govt, Congress should come to power) slogan in Nov 2023 assembly elections, is keen on doing an encore in the May 13 Lok Sabha elections by bagging the maximum seats (out of 17) in Telangana.The chief minister, who is also president of party Telangana unit, addressed nearly 60 public meetings, roadshows and street-corner meetings in the last 28 days and has been successful in creating an electoral discourse against BJP that the saffron party is a threat to the continuation of country’s democracy, Constitution and reservations. Apart from shouldering the party’s whirlwind campaign, Revanth came up with ‘gadida guddu’ (donkey egg alluding to Centre’s raw deal to Telangana) slogan and even showcased the ‘egg’ at his rallies across the state. His rhetoric that the BJP and RSS were conspiring to change the Constitution and doing away with reservations caught the attention of PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, who had to explain to people that the BJP would keep them and that the CM was lying. Revanth, as a star campaigner of the party, also toured Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and was present at the nomination rally of Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. Though AICC leaders Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge also hit the ground in the state, political observers said it was Revanth all the way as he took on Modi, Shah and BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. Revanth said the assembly poll results were a “semi-final” while the finals would be on May 13.Since SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities comprise nearly 90% of population, observers said Revanth was successful in propping up the issue of reservations and pushing the Ayodhya Ram temple agenda of BJP on the back burner. A senior observer said Revanth also effectively countered the Hindutva politics of BJP. “Revanth has been successful in projecting that the main contest is between Congress and BJP and that the BRS is not in the race and indirectly supporting the BJP to ensure that KCR’s daughter K Kavitha would get a bail in the Delhi liquor scam case,” he said.We also published the following articles recently