HYDERABAD: TPCC president A Revanth Reddy’s sudden tour of the US comes at a time when Congress’ campaign committee chairman Madhu Yashki Goud conveyed his reservations about Revanth’s recent remarks about Reddys and Velamas in a historic context during a meeting he had with Reddy community members in Karnataka few days ago.
Madhu Yashki had written a letter to Revanth from New Jersey with some words of wisdom, educating Revanth about how Congress has historically treated all communities equally. These principles, he said, needed to be followed if the party was to come to power.
Revanth responded immediately on his Twitter handle saying his remarks were taken out of context, and that people needed to concentrate on the issues facing Telangana. However, just a day later, Revanth flew to New Jersey, from where Madhu Yashki wrote the letter. This has sparked speculation about Revanth probably heading to the US, as damage control, by meeting Madhu Yashki.
NRI Velamas lash out
On Saturday, NRIs from the Velama community living in the US, wrote an open letter to Revanth, expressing their displeasure over his remarks.“Being a State unit president, we expected you to behave a little more responsibly. Instead of taking everyone along, seeking refuge in cheap divisive politics may help you fetch cheers, bravos, and applause from certain quarters, but would take away what is more required of a leader holding such responsible position and credibility,” says the letter, undersigned by 26 Velama NRIs.
The NRIs stated that targeting a caste because his opponent belonged to that caste (Velama), and working to divide the society to grab power rather than focusing on apprising the electorate how better he would deal with the pressing issues like poverty and development would ultimately boomerang on him and his party.
Damage control in New Jersey now
TPCC chief Revanth Reddy was conspicuously absent in the city on NTR’s birth anniversary. He is visiting New Jersey where he will meet Madhu Yashki to thrash out differences following his Reddy vs Velama statement.