• Congress leader A.Revanth Reddy was sworn in as Chief Minister of Telangana on December 7. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Revanth Reddy at the L.B.Stadium in Hyderabad.

• Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was sworn in as deputy chief minister.

• The K.Chandrashekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana was dethroned by the Congress in Assembly polls. 

• The Congress won 64 seats in the 119-member House. The BRS bagged 39 seats. 

• Revanth Reddy is credited with steering the Congress to power in Telangana by challenging both the BRS, which had a stranglehold on Telangana politics, and the BJP. 

• The 56-year-old Revanth Reddy is the second chief minister of Telangana after K.Chandrasekhar Rao, who held the office from June 2, 2014, to December 3, 2023.

The rise of Revanth Reddy

• Anumula Revanth Reddy’s career in public life is intriguing as it began with student activism in the right-wing ABVP and later included a brief period of incarceration amid bribery allegations. 

• He was born on November 8, 1969, in Kondareddypally village in Nagarkurnool district. 

• Reddy was first elected to a political office in 2006 when he succeeded in a Zilla Parishad election. He was elected as a Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) member, then as an independent. 

• He joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and became a confidante of party chief and former Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu. 

• Reddy was elected to the Legislative Assembly on a TDP ticket in 2009 and later in 2014 when Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh. 

• He faced the biggest challenge of his political life in 2015 when he was allegedly caught on camera trying to bribe a nominated MLA to vote in favor of the TDP in a Legislative Council election. 

• He was sent to jail in Hyderabad but was released on bail. He quit the TDP in October 2017 and joined the Congress the same year. 

• Revanth Reddy lost the 2018 Assembly poll to the BRS candidate. 

• He was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2019 elections from Malkajgiri. 

• He was appointed the PCC president in 2021 despite being junior in the Congress. He had the challenging task of reviving the fortunes of the Congress amid difficult circumstances and succeeded in uniting the party leaders. 

• The ruling BRS was at the peak of its power and glory after a resounding victory in the 2018 Assembly polls and 12 Congress MLAs joining the ruling party in 2019. 

• The Congress continued to face setbacks as the BJP achieved significant wins in the bypolls for two Assembly constituencies and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election during 2020 and 2021 after Bandi Sanjay Kumar assumed leadership of the BJP in Telangana. 

• Unfazed, Reddy continued to lead the party in the face of formidable challenges, and the Congress in Telangana witnessed a change in its fortunes after the Karnataka elections in May this year.

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