Telangana CM Revanth's advice for Modi govt: make BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya V-P to ‘amend mistake'
Addressing a press conference here Wednesday, Reddy, one of the three sitting Congress chief ministers, said BJP has an opportunity to 'amend its mistake' of having 'slighted' leaders from the Telugu-speaking state, such as M. Venkaiah Naidu and Bandi Sanjay Kumar, by elevating Dattatreya.
New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy believes veteran BJP leader and former Governor Bandaru Dattatreya should be the next Vice President of India, following the abrupt resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar from the post on 21 July.
Reddy, who is in the capital to make a presentation on his government's caste survey to the Congress leadership and party MPs Thursday, said Dattatreya was an ideal candidate to succeed Dhankhar. Last month, while launching Dattatreya's autobiography in Hyderabad, Reddy had called the BJP leader an 'ajatashatru' (one with no enemies).
'When Dattatreya was a Union minister, the position was taken from him and given to G. Kishan Reddy. Later, Bandi Sanjay Kumar was BJP state president but a Brahmin, N. Ramchander Rao, replaced him. So the NDA has finished all OBC leaders from South, particularly Telangana. So they should make amends and make Dattatreya the Vice President,' Reddy said.
Dattatreya, who has had a long inning with the BJP having started his career with the RSS, was dropped from the Union Council of Ministers in 2017—made to resign ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle. In 2019, he was made the Governor of Himachal Pradesh and later of Haryana, in 2021.
Asked if he will get the INDIA bloc to support a possible candidate of Dattatreya, Reddy said he would definitely request the Congress leadership to consider the proposal on behalf of the people of Telangana.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Jagdeep Dhankhar's abrupt exit says three things about the Modi govt
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
9 minutes ago
- NDTV
"No Record": Poll Body Denies Congress Leader's Claim Of Forged Voter List
Bengaluru: In a development that adds fresh fuel to the ongoing controversy around alleged voter roll manipulation, the Karnataka State Election Commission has officially responded to a letter from H Nagesh -- the Congress candidate from Mahadevapura, who lost in the assembly elections from the same constituency in 2023. In response to his letter, the Commission has said it has no record of any submission made by him in April 2023 regarding forged entries in the constituency's voter list. In his letter dated July 31, Mr Nagesh had requested a copy of a document he claims to have submitted last year, listing alleged bogus voters in the 174-Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency. He said his team had misplaced the original documents listing forged entries in the voters list. The Election Commission, however has responded saying it has no such document on record and noted that Mr Nagesh had also not filed any petition or appeal challenging the 2023 voter list under relevant provisions of the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951. "This office does not have records of any such letter received from you during April 2023 on the issue of electoral rolls," read the letter from the Election Commission. The reply, issued by Joint Chief Electoral Officer Yogeshwar S, also emphasized that statutory electoral rolls are publicly available online and are also handed to all contesting candidates, including Mr Nagesh, at the time. Interestingly Rahul Gandhi has been raising the same issue and has been accusing the Election Commission of failing to act on credible evidence of electoral fraud. Rahul Gandhi will be in Bengaluru on August 5, where he will lead a major protest at Freedom Park against the Election Commission and the BJP.
Indian Express
9 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Ahead of Cong protest, ex-minister seeks copy of ‘2023 letter'; no record, says Karnataka CEO
Ahead of Congress's protest scheduled on August 5 in Bengaluru over alleged voter fraud during 2024 Lok Sabha elections, former minister H Nagesh had written to the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, seeking a copy of a complaint he claimed he had submitted in April 2023 alleging forged entries in voters' list. The CEO's office, however, denied receiving any such complaint. Nagesh contested the 2023 polls from Mahadevapura constituency in Bengaluru and lost by a margin of 44,000 votes to BJP's S Manjula. On July 31 this year, in a letter to the state election commission, he said, 'I, H Nagesh, wish to bring to your kind attention that we had earlier during April 2023, submitted a list containing details of alleged forged entries in the voters list pertaining to our constituency 174 Mahadevapura. This issue is of grave concern as it affects the transparency and fairness of the electoral process. However, we have misplaced the list of documents — we do not have a copy of the submitted documents for our records. We kindly request you to share a copy of the document which we had submitted.' The letter was shared on the official X handle of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, and the reply attached. Yogeshwar S, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, in a letter dated August 2, said that 'this office does not have records of any such letter received from you during April 2023 on the issue of electoral rolls with a list containing details of alleged forged entries in the voter list pertaining to 174-Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, which you have suddenly raised now.' 'This office has a statutory copy of the electoral roll which is also available online and is always handed over to the candidates during the elections, including you while you were a contesting candidate,' the letter said. 'Since then, you have not filed any petition with respect to 174-Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency as per Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 nor any appeal to either the first appellate authority or second appellate authority against entries in the electoral rolls published in 2023 as per Section 24 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950,' it said.
India.com
9 minutes ago
- India.com
No Consensus, Just Conflict: Operation Sindoor Debate Sinks Into Bitter Blame Game Between Govt And Opposition
New Delhi: The brief political unity witnessed in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent military conflict with Pakistan seems to have unravelled following the surprise ceasefire announcement on May 10. This week's marathon three-day debate in Parliament on Operation Sindoor laid bare the widening gulf between the government and the Opposition. It reinforces the notion that in today's India, consensus is the exception, not the norm. The debate gave an opportunity to the leaders of both the government and the Opposition to show unity against terrorism coming from Pakistan. While many speakers across party lines called for a common stance, their speeches exposed deep divisions. The Opposition left no stone unturned to corner the lawmakers and pressed for answers on critical issues such as security and intelligence lapses preceding the Pahalgam attack, accountability for those failures, losses suffered by the Indian Air Force, and the true nature of US involvement. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose not to respond in the Rajya Sabha, delegating the reply to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, which triggered an Opposition walkout. From the government's perspective, the needle moved favourably, for instance, Union Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed the elimination of the Pahalgam terrorists, and Prime Minister Modi asserted that "no global leader" had urged India to halt its military operation. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar put a full stop to speculations regarding New Delhi's differences with Washington, including issues of deportations, visas, and student concerns, aimed at closing talks around Trump's role in India-Pakistan ceasefire. However, the Opposition remained unsatisfied. Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi challenged the Prime Minister to publicly refute US President Donald Trump's claims of brokering the ceasefire, labeling the challenge 'political rhetoric.' While the PM skipped any mention of Trump and his repeated assertions of having brokered the ceasefire, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sidestepped questions regarding the fighter jets lost on the first day of conflict, instead urging a results-focused perspective, saying, 'In any exam, the result matters. We should see whether a student is getting good marks and not focus on whether his pencil was broken or his pen was lost.' Congress's Nationalist Strategy In an uncharacteristic move, the Congress party adopted a nationalist stance to continue putting pressure on the government. This approach aimed to score political points by portraying the government as weak on defense. However, the tables turned with former Home Minister P. Chidambaram's suggestion that the Pahalgam attackers might have been "homegrown terrorists", rather than Pakistan-backed. This offered the government an opportunity to criticise the grand old party's inconsistent position. Rahul Gandhi's speech was notably combative, alongside his sister, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra recalled the resignations of Vilasrao Deshmukh as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shivraj Patil as Union Home Minister after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, to emphasise government accountability. Gandhi accused the Prime Minister of prioritising his image over the armed forces' freedom to operate, warning that 'the forces should be used with freedom and for the national interest' and urged a decisive military effort to 'defeat terrorism once and for all.' 'It is dangerous at this time for the Prime Minister to use the forces to protect his image. It is dangerous for the country. The forces should only be used in the national interest, and the forces should be used with freedom. If you want them to be used … then go all the way, fight properly and defeat them once and for all," he said. Historical Echoes In Debate The discussion frequently revisited historical parallels. The Congress party members highlighted Indira Gandhi's role in the creation of Bangladesh despite US pressure, contrasting it with the current ceasefire announcement influenced by the US. Meanwhile, the government drew attention to the Congress's perceived failings during critical moments, such as Partition, the wars of 1947–48 and 1965, the Indus Waters Treaty, and the 1962 war with China, to question the Opposition's credibility on national security. While the Congress remains burdened by its political legacy, this debate underscored the broader polarisation within Indian politics. Despite shared concerns over terrorism, the parties remain entrenched in mutual recriminations. With other INDIA bloc parties siding with the Congress in criticism of the government, the opposition front remains fragmented under intense BJP scrutiny.
