HYDERABAD: Ahead of every Assembly election, there will be a rat race among the leaders of the grand old party to be considered as the chief ministerial candidate. However, with less than nine months remaining for the Assembly elections, TPCC star campaigner Komatireddy Venkat Reddy triggered a row with a rather unusual demand.
His demand was that the Congress should make a Dalit the chief minister. He said he had discussed it with party president Mallikharjun Kharge.
On Friday, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Ambedkar, he divulged his demand. He maintained that the Congress would be living up to its billing that it was on the side of the weaker sections if it chose a Dalit leader as its chief ministerial candidate.
He asserted that the Congress would steal a march over the BRS with this slogan as the representation of Dalits in the state cabinet was only one in KCR’s first term and the present one.
“I read Ambedkar’s writings. In one instance, Ambedkar clearly said that political power alone will improve their lives,” Venkat Reddy said.
Venkat Reddy’s demand assumes significance as he made the demand while taking part in the padayatra programme of CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is a Dalit leader.
The demand for Dalit CM is nothing new in the grand old party, but that it should come from a prominent leader from a dominant caste, is.
In the Jai Bharat Satyagraha Sabha, a public meeting in Mancherial, several senior leaders noted that Congress is the only party where Dalits can rise to any height, or even become the party president.
In recent times, Congress has replaced “Maharaja” with a Dalit face as Chief Minister of Punjab. Now, Venkat Reddy is making a similar demand with his party’s high command.
Meanwhile, Mallu Ravi - a brother of Bhatti Vikramarka - interpreted Venkat Reddy’s statement as one intended to stymie the prospects of TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy to occupy gaddi in the state should Congress come to power in the next elections. “Komatreddy has no love for Dalits,” he said.