Revanth Reddy stakes prestige in Mahbubnagar fights, plays ‘son of soil’ card to boost Congress

The Congress is hoping to improve its tally in the Lok Sabha polls in the party-ruled Telangana, which would also cement Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s rising stature in the party.

All eyes would be especially on Mahbubnagar district comprising Mahbubnagar and Nagarkurnool constituencies, given that it is the home turf of Revanth, who is also the Telangana Congress president.

As the Congress rallies round the CM, terming the parliamentary elections a referendum on his governance over the past five months, it is faced with the challenge of wresting the two seats from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), even as the BJP has made inroads in the region. The Congress and the BRS have won Nagarkurnool, one of the three SC-reserved seats in Telangana, once each in 2014 and 2019, respectively, in the two rounds of elections since the state’s formation.

With Nagarkurnool’s incumbent BRS MP, Pothuganti Ramulu, joining the BJP in February, the latter has nominated his son Pothuganti Bharat Kumar (36) from here in the current polls.

The Congress has nominated veteran leader Mallu Ravi from Nagarkurnool, who had won the seat in 1991 and 1998. The BRS has fielded former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar, who quit the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as its state chief in March 2024 to join the party.

Spearheading the Congress campaign, Revanth Reddy is counting on the ‘son of the soil’ sentiment, and has appealed to voters to help the party win these two seats by over a lakh votes. Alleging that the BJP and the BRS were working in collusion to defeat the Congress, he even asked his supporters at a meeting: “What face will I have in the party and nationally, if I get defeated in Palamuru.”

He often tries to strike an emotional chord with voters by