HYDERABAD: It was sometime in the year 2000 when Anumula Revanth Reddy, aged just about 31, confided to a close friend: “I will one day be the chief minister.” At the time, he was not in any political party. He had, just a few months prior, won the prestigious Jubilee Hills Cooperative Housing Society polls in Hyderabad. He had by then made his mark in the real estate sector. Recalling the times, his friend, who wished to remain anonymous, observed, “Revanth was young, spirited and ambitious. Though what he said sounded outlandish, I wasn’t surprised.”
Two decades on, it doesn’t sound pompous or preposterous. In fact, in hindsight, it explains his political trajectory. It hasn’t been a cakewalk for him. Revanth hails from Kondareddipalle in Kalwakurthy Assembly constituency.
Born on November 8, 1969 to Narsimha Reddy and Ramachandramma in an agricultural family, Revanth was fourth among seven siblings including a sister. None from his family was into politics. He had his schooling in Kalwakurthy and graduated in fine arts from AV College in Hyderabad in 1992. It was during his college days that he was associated with ABVP, the student wing of the BJP. He got married to Geeta Reddy, niece of former union minister and senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy, and daughter of Padma Reddy, a well-known face in politics and business circles, on May 7, 1992. An interesting fact is that one of his close friends and roommate, now a senior RSS man, helped Revanth win the heart of the woman who has since been his strong support.
Revanth, around this time, floated an advertising and printing agency and within four years, got into real estate at a time when Hyderabad was just beginning to grow as an IT hub. There was no looking back for him since then. He was elected as director of the Jubilee Hills Cooperative Housing Society and twice as an office-bearer of its executive committee.
In 2002, Revanth and present Chief Minister and BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao became friends with the latter launching a separate Telangana agitation. He worked closely with KCR and expected the Kalwakurthy Assembly ticket in 2004, where the then TRS (now BRS) allied with the Congress. At the last minute, the ticket was allocated to Yedam Kista Reddy, a close follower of Jaipal Reddy.
This is interesting since had Jaipal Reddy been willing to let the TRS contest from Kalwakurthy, Revanth would have entered the poll fray for the first time on behalf of the pink party. That was not to be. After that election, Revanth distanced himself from the TRS, and decided to enter politics from the ground level on his own. His arangetram in politics was as an independent in a ZPTC election in 2006 from Midjil mandal, which he won.
A year later, he contested MLC elections under local bodies’ quota from Mahbubnagar as an independent and won. This is the turning point of his political career. In 2007, the then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy asked him to join the Congress, but Revanth chose the opposition Telugu Desam. The reason, according to his aides, is that he wanted to carve a niche for himself, which he thought was possible as an opposition voice.
An orator with a penchant for using proverbs mixed with aggressive slang, he attracted the attention of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and got an image for himself as a firebrand.He contested for the first time in Assembly elections in 2009 from Kodangal in Mahbubnagar district against a strong opponent Gurunath Reddy, a five-time MLA from the Congress. The TDP was at the time in an alliance with TRS, CPI and CPM. The inside story is that Revanth was said to be the key man who persuaded KCR to contest as MP from Mahbubnagar to spread the Telangana sentiment in the southern region. It was perfect for KCR as he could expand his party in south Telangana. In hindsight, that was a mistake, Revanth’s close aides say.
In that Assembly election, Revanth defeated Gurunath Reddy by a margin of 6,989 votes. As a first-time MLA, he used the opportunity to the hilt speaking in and outside the Assembly during the Telangana agitation. In 2014, he contested again from the same segment and won by a margin of 14,614 votes. He was elevated as the working president of the Telangana TDP. His real test began thereafter. On May 31, 2015, Revanth was caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for allegedly offering Rs 50 lakh to nominated MLA Stephenson to vote in favour of TDP candidate Vem Narender Reddy in MLC elections. He was arrested. What he said at the time is significant. He twirled his moustache and dared Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao: “I will see your end. My time will come.” What seems to have turned him dead against KCR was this incident. He had to secure bail for 12 hours to attend his daughter Nymisha’s marriage. He was behind bars for a month.
As the TRS decimated the TDP by luring its leaders in Telangana, Revanth joined the Congress in 2017 and was very soon made the working president of the State Congress. At the time of Assembly elections in 2018, he faced Income Tax and ED searches for alleged irregularities in financial transactions. He lost the election from Kodangal to BRS candidate Patnam Narender Reddy.“But you cannot keep him down for long. He always bounces back,” one of his aides told TNIE, pointing out how he won the Lok Sabha seat from Malkajgiri in 2019 just four months after the loss in the Assembly election. Malkajgiri happens to be the largest constituency in South Asia. His clarion call during the election was, “elect a voice that can question the rulers.” He won by a margin of over 10,000 votes, which gave him a second lease of life in politics.
He was made the Pradesh Congress President in June 2021, within three years of joining the party. He has always been a thorn in the flesh of KCR. He was arrested a few times and had to spend a few days in jail in the KT Rama Rao farmhouse case. An avid footballer, he told this correspondent, “I was never interested in becoming a minister. My target is to be the CM. I wanted to come up from the grassroots level. There are no shortcuts in politics. If I wanted to be a minister, I could have joined the Rajasekhara Reddy government but I chose to be in the opposition.”
One of his friends, Venkata Ramana Reddy, a sculptor, recalled, “He told me that he decided to enter politics in 1992 itself when he was just about 23. He never gives up. He can be very strong-headed but pragmatic. He sets a goal and goes after it no matter what.”How will he be as chief minister? “He will take along everyone but he has a knack of getting his way. He networks very well. And he has a vision to make his mark. Once he told me, I have money, family, everything. I wanted to do something beyond such that nobody remembers KCR after I become chief minister,” he said once. What will he do? That is a million-dollar question.