Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Wednesday, 23 July, stated that the next Vice-President of India should be from Telangana, and recommended that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bandaru Dattatreya be appointed to the post.
CM Revanth’s remarks follow the sudden resignation of former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday, 21 July.
“I am not sure why Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned. It was unfortunate. But the post should now go to a leader from Telangana. The last time, former Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu was recommended for the Presidency. But they (referring to the BJP) sent him back and sidelined a Telugu-speaking man,” said CM Revanth, adding that, to correct the injustice, Dattatreya should be given the post.
The Chief Minister also alleged that Dattatreya’s Cabinet post was taken away and handed to the current Union Minister for Mines, Kishan Reddy. “In the same vein, Kishan Reddy was removed from the post of Telangana BJP President and replaced by a Brahmin leader, N. Ramchander Rao. To absolve themselves of their many sins vis-à-vis OBCs, Dattatreya should be given the post,” he asserted.
Bandaru Dattatreya belongs to the Kuruba community, which is categorised as a Backward Class (BC) group in Telangana.
The Chief Minister’s remarks took many by surprise, coming just 12 days after Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka announced that the Congress-led government in Telangana would reopen the investigation into the 2016 suicide of University of Hyderabad (UoH) Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula.
Bandaru Dattatreya, then the Secunderabad Member of Parliament (MP), was accused alongside the current Telangana BJP President Ramchander Rao of pressuring the UoH administration to take action against the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), a student political organisation of which Rohith was a member.
“We will not spare anyone involved in the case. The appointment shows that whoever goes against Adivasis and Dalits will be rewarded by the BJP,” Deputy CM Bhatti had stated, referring to Ramchander Rao.
However, CM Revanth’s strong endorsement of Dattatreya, despite the ongoing case, highlights contradictions within the Telangana Congress.
This is not the first time CM Revanth has spoken in favour of Bandaru Dattatreya, who also served as the Governor of Haryana. On 9 June, CM Revanth released Dattatreya’s autobiography, Prajala Kathe – Naa Atma Katha (The Public’s Story is My Autobiography), at Hyderabad’s Shilpakala Vedika.
Speaking at the book launch, the Chief Minister described Dattatreya as an Ajata Shatruvu (one without enemies), and said that he stands as a role model for aspiring leaders, having risen from humble beginnings in Gowliguda, a small locality in Hyderabad.
