Telangana CM’s cringe-worthy victory revelry a day after Bihar debacle

New Delhi: A day after the Congress and its allies suffered a crushing defeat in Bihar, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy rushed to Delhi to share some joyous moments with Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge over a bypoll victory in his state.

The pictures of Reddy meeting the two leaders and presenting traditional shawls and bouquets struck a discordant note and grated on the nerves of party leaders and workers still licking their electoral wounds.

Also read: Bihar’s 180-plus verdict: How only NewsDrum saw it coming

Reddy was accompanied by a team of party leaders, including the newly elected legislator from Jubilee Hills, Naveen Yadav V, to celebrate the win.

It is evident that Reddy is trying to project the Jubilee Hills bypoll victory as one of his major achievements.
Perhaps this win wouldn’t have been possible had All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi not extended his wholehearted support to the Congress, at the cost of antagonising Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and his son K.T. Rama Rao (KTR), with whom he had shared an excellent relationship from 2014 to 2023, when their party was in power.

The Chief Minister also seemed eager to show that while the Congress was bruised badly elsewhere, he managed to deliver a bypoll win.

Barring a few exceptions, the general trend over the years has been that the ruling party usually manages to win by-elections.

Reddy is already facing strong resentment within the party over his autocratic style of functioning. Since taking over as the Telangana Congress president and later as Chief Minister, he has antagonised several senior leaders, even prompting some to leave the party.

Reddy's loudest cheerleader at the national level is Congress general secretary in charge of organisation, K.C. Venugopal, who in recent years has become not only the eyes and ears of Rahul Gandhi but also one of his key advisors.

A day after the INDIA grouping’s electoral decimation in Bihar, the Congress leadership should have swung into action and deliberated on its future course instead of accepting bouquets and shawls.

The Congress could take a few lessons from the BJP on how to fight elections. The seriousness with which the BJP gets its act together is commendable.

After celebrating the Bihar landslide for a day, the BJP quickly moved on to strategising for the upcoming Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry next year. The saffron party’s complete focus is now on West Bengal.