Uttam set to hand over baton to Revanth
Deccan ChronicleHyderabad: The Telangana state Congress is all set to celebrate the start of a new phase, with Anumula Revanth Reddy taking charge as president of the Pradesh Congress Committee in a show-of-strength event at Gandhi Bhavan here on Wednesday. After a long tenure of over six years and four months, Uttam Kumar Reddy, who replaced Ponnala Lakshmiah in February 2015, will hand over the baton to the 51-year-old Revanth Reddy at a time when the party is facing an existential challenge in the state and across the country. Revanth Reddy won an intense internal and often bitter battle of wits for the PCC chief post, trumping over potential rivals that included Lok Sabha member from Bhongir, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Congress Legislature Party chief Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, former minister D. Sridhar Babu, and MLC T. Jeevan Reddy, among others. Revanth Reddy, who joined the Congress in October 2017 from the Telugu Desam, won the confidence of the party high command and party affairs in-charge Manickam Tagore in a quick time. The BJP and TRS are allies pretending to be rivals, but people of Telangana state have seen through the game.” The immediate challenge will be the Huzurabad byelection and Revanth Reddy is left with little time to prove his mettle in an electoral battle that’s perceived to be a face-off between Etala Rajendar donning the saffron colour and a pick of Chadnrashekar Rao as the TRS candidate.