HyderabadOctober 16, 2025 03:07 PM IST
First published on: Oct 16, 2025 at 03:06 PM IST
With the crucial Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll days away and amid setbacks from courts over its move to implement 42% reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) in local bodies, a “caste war” has erupted within the Telangana Congress over contract works related to the Medaram Jatara, a biennial tribal festival.
Trouble first broke out within the Congress last week after state Forest Minister Konda Surekha, who hails from the Padmasali Backward Class community, accused her Cabinet colleague Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy of “interfering” in the Rs 71-crore contract for the Medaram Jatara, weeks after Revanth Reddy urged the Centre to declare it a national festival and allocate funds for it.
Things turned ugly late on Wednesday after Surekha’s daughter, Konda Sushmitha, accused Srinivasa Reddy of targeting her family “as they belong to the Backward Classes.”
“It is a conspiracy, as a part of which my parents are being targeted. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, his advisor Vem Narender Reddy, Srinivasa Reddy and MLA Kadiyam Srihari are behind the conspiracy,” she said.
Sushmitha’s statement came after the Telangana Police tried to arrest her mother’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) N Sumanth on charges of threatening an official of Deccan Cements at gunpoint in Huzurnagar – Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy’s constituency – and extorting money from him.
According to the police, as plain-clothed personnel reached Surekha’s Jubilee Hills residence to arrest Sumanth, the minister was seen escorting him out to an undisclosed location while Sushmitha resisted them, leading to a heated argument. “Those part of the conspiracy may force Sumanth to give a statement that he threatened the Deccan Cements employee on the insistence of my father (former MLC Konda Murali),” Sushmitha alleged.
That the Backward Class-Reddy rift between two ministers has surfaced just ahead of the crucial bypoll, and at a time when the party is advocating enhanced reservations for Backward Classes in local body polls, is bad optics, sources within the Congress said.
A section of the Congress also feels that the fiasco may affect the party’s core voter base. “While the current focus, especially during the Jubilee Hills bypoll, is on voters from the Backward Classes, the Congress cannot do away with its core support base of the Reddy community,” a Congress leader said.
Surekha’s outburst has also provided ammunition to the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which claims that the Congress’s “Reddy pride” will bite the dust in the upcoming bypoll. “Though the Congress has fielded a candidate (Naveen Yadav) from the Backward Classes, its loyalty always lies with the Reddys,” a BRS leader said.
According to the Telangana caste survey, Reddys are numerically the largest community among the Other Castes (OCs), with an almost 7% population. The community is seen to be in favour of the Congress and has given undivided Andhra Pradesh many CMs. Some of the party’s stalwarts from the state, such as Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Marri Chenna Reddy, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy and Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, also hail from the community.
Meanwhile, sources said top Congress leaders will speak to both ministers but indicated that the CM is likely to be in favour of initiating disciplinary action against Surekha. “In signs that Surekha may find herself in the dock, Srinivasa Reddy has been handed over the task of overseeing preparations for the Medaram Jatara,” a source said.
Another source pointed out that the state leadership is not happy with Surekha as she has dragged Srihari, who belongs to the Dalit community, into the controversy apart from accusing the “Reddy lobby.” “She has an issue with anyone who is prominent. The state leadership is unlikely to take it kindly,” a Congress leader said.