Slip or flip? Bhatti blurts out he’s CM; Rajgopal Reddy thinks Jagdish Reddy “our minister”

HYDERABAD: Truth, however much effort is made to hide, does come out in one form or the other.

Somehow, senior Congress legislators and Ministers are unable to digest two facts.

1. That Revanth Reddy occupied the Chief Minister’s gaddi

2. ⁠That the Congress came to power in the place of Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

Let us examiner the case 1.

While speaking on Irrigation white paper presented by the Government in the Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Malli Bhatti Vikramarka blurted out what’s working in the back of his mind.

He did aspire to then come the Chief Minister. Indeed, he worked for that by walking in a padayatra for 1,700 km covering 13 districts in Telangana. That sure was an effort he had made to clear his path for his ascendancy to the top job.

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When I had asked him in an interview by “Five Editors” organised by popular news channels TV9 pointedly about this, Bhatti had not fumbled.

I had asked him if Panche kattu, padayatra and Padihedu jillalu (17 districts) — the combination of words that began with Telugu syllable “pa” — a sentiment, he minced no words in responding.

He had said that certainly idolised his political guru the late Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who had revived the Congress in the undivided Andhra Pradesh literally from a shambles.

And that he surely had the influence of Dr Reddy on him. The respect several Congressmen had shown towards the departed leader was such that all of them had sought to emulate him at one point in time or the other in their respective political careers.

Asked if he would pit himself as contender for the top job, Bhatti had said that the Congress high command, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, would decide on who should be the Chief Minister. He had hastened to add that the Congress Legislature Party, consisting of all Congress MLAs, would elect their leader.

His response had exactly been a repeat of when Dr Reddy had maintained that it’s for the Congress high command and the party MLAs to choose. This he had said when he was exactly at the threshold of becoming the Chief Minister. Maybe, Bhatti had hoped his humility would also be rewarded the same way. Also, Vikramarka was mature to demonstrate his humility while responding to such tricky questions.

When the Congress finally decided to choose Revanth Reddy for the top job, Bhatti indeed was disappointed but didn’t make it so obvious.

He, however, had shot down the proposal to have two Deputy Chief Ministers in the State and maintained that his uniqueness must be honoured. The party high command had to budge. Well, Bhatti’s wife who is now angling for the Congress ticket for Khammam Lok Sabha seat made it clear after the Cabinet was formed that she had expected that her husband would be made the Chief Minister of Telangana. She did not hesitate to assert that the Congress leadership had ditched him. Though he had accepted No.2 position grudgingly, the missed bus of the top job must have been haunting him in his hearts of heart.

That innermost feeling came out in the form of Freudian slip on the floor of the House on Saturday during a discussion on the white paper on Irrigation on Saturday.

He could easily pass it off as a faux pas. But, those who watched him, for sure, must have felt that his illusory remark, came out of his mouth in the form of an expression.

Bhatti said while taking about submergence of land due to projects that he, as the “Chief Minister of the State”, two lakh acres was left for building Polavaram project in my downstream State…” Tomorrow he might cover up suggesting that he had said it in reference to a statement that KCR would have taken cover under as the CM. Well, it may seem to be reading too much into his utterance of the words that “as the Chief Minister of the State…”

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But, the fact that he had aspired to be the Chief Minister and that he is ready for the top job anytime cannot be denied.

In case 2, in his emotional address on the floor of the House, Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, while talking about the distribution of Relief and Rehabilitation package to people of his Munugode Asemebly constituency only during the previous by-election, said, “Our minister Jagadish Reddy is laughing.” Incidentally, Jagadish Reddy was minister in the erstwhile government and is currently just an MLA. This slip too indicated that most Congressmen could not digest the fact that KCR Government lost and it’s they who were in power.

Will Bhatti’s dream job come crawling to him ever? Or was Rajgopal Reddy’s faux pas turn out to be a prophecy? Who knows? After all, it’s a democracy where change has always been a constant.