As the Congress celebrates 1,000 days in office in Telangana, it has several achievements to count. But, as happens so often with the party, the headlines are crowded with news of the party emerging from yet another internal tussle. When the Congress came back to power in the state in late 2023 after a decade in wilderness, it rode high on public expectations and aspirations. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his team quickly waived crop loans up to ₹2 lakh, introduced free bus rides for women, focused on infrastructure, housing for the poor, distribution of new ration cards and refined fine rice, and drafted a plan for development. Reddy’s brainchild HYDRAA went on a spree of demolishing encroachments in Hyderabad that invited both praise and criticism.
Similarly, the government’s focus on artificial intelligence, upgrading industrial training institutes, establishing new schools and attracting investment has been a work in progress, with some tangible results thus far. Nonetheless, the party’s celebrations have been clouded by a controversy involving firebrand leader Konda Surekha, who was dropped from the Cabinet for indiscipline. Similar action had to be taken against Chinna Reddy, a long-time party loyalist and vice-chairman of the State Planning Board. The move was inevitable given the way Surekha’s family was damaging the credibility of the party and the CM.
It must be said that the Congress leadership acted shrewdly in bringing in a woman from the backward classes to replace Reddy and elevating two other women from the same community to deflect charges of class-based discrimination. However, the episode highlights a larger malaise within the party.
The image of a disunited state leadership has been a running theme giving ammunition to the opposition BRS and BJP. With half its tenure gone, the Congress government has no time to lose. The Surekha saga has sent a message that the CM enjoys the party high command’s confidence, giving him and the state leadership the power to quell dissidence. Its effect will be seen in the way the expected Cabinet reshuffle takes shape. But that’s only half the job. Good governance must prioritise the spirit of service. At the same time, public outreach online and offline must be improved. Else, the Congress may lose out in the perception battle.