Game Changer of a different kind: Revanth Reddy government starts off 2025 on slippery foot

The Revanth Reddy-led Congress govt faces criticism for continued U-turns and unfulfilled promises, including reduced Rythu Bharosa aid, unregularised SSA employees, and a reversed stance on movie ticket price hikes

Hyderabad: The New Year has been no different for the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government, with last year’s trend of bloopers, U-turns and broken promises continuing in 2025 as well.

To begin with, the extension of the Hyderabad Metro Rail beyond Medchal was projected as Revanth Reddy’s “New Year gift” to the people of Hyderabad. However, that soon turned out to be a poor PR stunt with people pointing out that the Metro Rail services to those parts of the city were announced by the BRS government and that Revanth Reddy’s gift was just a few minor tweaks in the route.

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The next blooper however, is likely to have a long-lasting impact, especially with local body polls coming up. The State government declared that Rythu Bharosa would be launched from January 26. While the launch was good news, what came with the launch wasn’t that good and in fact, made people ask why Revanth Reddy was so habituated to breaking his promises. This was after the financial assistance under the scheme was cut down from the promised Rs.15,000 to Rs.12,000 per acre per annum. This was also a blot on the Congress Assembly election manifesto.

Even as farmers were protesting the betrayal, ongoing strikes by another section exposed another broken promise. During the Assembly elections in 2023, Revanth Reddy had promised the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan employees at Hanamkonda that their services would be regularized after the Congress government came to power. Forget the promise not being kept, Revanth Reddy in fact went to the extent of claiming services of SSA employees could not be regularized as it was a Central government scheme. Didn’t he think of that while making the promise?

The U-turn approach continued when it came to the movie industry as well. After targeting actor Allu Arjun in the Assembly, the Congress had announced that there would be no more ticket price hikes, no benefit shows and no special privileges for Tollywood. Both Revanth Reddy and Cinematography Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy had announced this in the Assembly on December 21 in the wake of the Sandhya Theatre stampede tragedy.

However, on Wednesday, the Congress government did yet another volte-face, issuing orders permitting a ticket price hike for the Ramcharan starrer ‘Game Changer’. The film is produced by Dil Raju, chairman of the Telangana Film Development Corporation.

Sharing the Chief Minister’s video and the order copy on X, Nayini Anurag Reddy, an entrepreneur said: “It’s only a matter of time before a fool exposes himself. December 21: No ticket price hikes as long as I am the Chief Minister of Telangana. January 8: Approved a Rs.150 price hike, including an early morning 4 am show…”

“This is the very first film release after the Chief Minister’s statement in the Assembly, and look at what has happened. This speaks volume about the character of Revanth Reddy. Isn’t it now very clear that all the chaos he created was just for his ego? Anyways, best wishes to the team of GameChanger…” Anurag Reddy said.