Revanth Reddy's ‘Po mone...’ moment lifts UDF campaign, but draws flak from Left allies

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy might have elicited some applause while campaigning in Kerala for the UDF with his version of Mohanlal’s iconic dialogue, ‘Po Mone Dinesha’, but his attack on the LDF and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan has not gone down too well back home, where he had stitched together alliances with Left parties before the Assembly elections in 2023. 

Even as the Left in Kerala has reacted sharply to Revanth Reddy’s comments, it is the reaction back home that stings more for Revanth Reddy, with CPI Telangana state secretary and Kothagudem MLA K Sambasiva Rao slamming him for his comments, which he felt could indirectly help the BJP and undermine the INDI Alliance nationwide. The CPI is also in an alliance with the Congress government in Telangana. While Revanth Reddy could criticise the government’s shortcomings in Kerala, it was not ‘right’ to attack the Left or resort to character assassination, since that could provide fodder for the BJP, he added.

CPM Telangana State secretary John Wesley went to the extent of calling Revanth Reddy ‘delirious’ and also pointed out that Reddy, who had earlier called Prime Minister Narendra Modi his ‘big brother’, was now comparing Modi and Vijayan. In a hard-worded statement, Wesley also alleged that Revanth Reddy was making tall claims about the six guarantees given in Telangana, when reality was that women were yet to get the promised monthly assistance of ₹2,500 even two years after the Congress came to power. Most of the guarantees were yet to be implemented but the Chief Minister was making false claims. 

“The CPM State committee strongly condemns the manner in which the Chief Minister has spoken in Kerala, employing tactics that obscure facts in an attempt to deceive the public. The people of Kerala are educated and think critically about all matters. We appeal to them to fully grasp and understand such tactics,” he said.

The BJP in Telangana too has responded to Revanth’s campaign in Kerala with the party’s state president N Ramchander Rao calling out what he termed the ‘hypocrisy’ of the Congress. 

“Telangana mein Dosti - Keralam mein Kusti. CM @revanth_anumula goes to Keralam to campaign against the Communist, while Congress and Communists remain allies in Telangana. No one has mastered hypocrisy like the Congress and its leaders,” he said in a post on X. 

In Kerala, senior CPM leader and the LDF’s Nemom candidate V Sivankutty said Revanth Reddy’s remarks against Vijayan exposed the ‘political pauperism’ of the Congress. Demanding that Reddy withdraw his comments, Sivankutty said Reddy probably did not know who Vijayan was. 

Meanwhile, the LDF has also questioned Revanth Reddy’s claims during the campaign. Senior CPM leader CB Chandrababu, speaking to Onmanorama, ridiculed Revanth Reddy’s promise of welfare pensions from the Congress, stating that pensioners in Telangana were protesting on the streets after not being paid pensions for the last 25 months. These included the differently abled and old aged pension beneficiaries. Even government employees in Telangana were on the warpath against the government, with retired employees on protest mode ever since the Congress assumed power, complaining that they were not being paid their retirement benefits even two years after retirement. 

“Here, the LDF government has ensured that retirement benefits reach the beneficiary’s account the very next day. I don’t think that Revanth Reddy’s claims befit a person on the Chief Minister’s chair. He does not come across as a matured political leader,” Chandrababu said, also asking the UDF to check Revanth Reddy’s track record while campaigning for the Congress in other State elections like Bihar, Maharashtra and even in Delhi.

“The Congress has lost miserably wherever he has campaigned,” he quipped.

At the same time, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala countered the Left’s allegations, stating that Revanth Reddy had implemented the six guarantees in Telangana, and that his campaign would have a positive impact for the UDF here. 

Speaking to Onmanorama, Chennithala said Revanth Reddy had only lifted the campaign's momentum for the UDF. 

“He is one of our three Congress Chief Ministers in the country and his campaigning here will help us in a big way,” he said, adding that the Congress was planning to get Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to campaign for the party in Kerala in a couple of days.