Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday demanded that the post of Vice President of India be given to Telangana and proposed veteran OBC leader Bandaru Dattatreya for the role.
Calling the resignation of outgoing Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar “unfortunate,” Reddy said the NDA government must correct historical imbalances by appointing a Telugu-speaking leader to the second-highest constitutional post.
“The next Vice President should be from Telangana. Telugu is the second-most spoken language in India after Hindi. Justice must be done to Telugu speakers,” he said.
Reddy argued that Telangana has been sidelined in recent years. “They removed Venkaiah Naidu, a Telugu leader, from the Vice President’s post. Then they ousted Bandaru Dattatreya as Governor, and later replaced Bandi Sanjay as BJP’s Telangana president,” he said.
He said he proposed Dattatreya’s name as he represents the Telugu-speaking OBC community and had been removed from the posts of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governor. Dattatreya vacated the Himachal post on July 21.
“If Dattatreya is made Vice President, at least some of the Centre’s sins will be washed away,” Reddy said. Asked about Congress backing the proposal, he replied that he would personally request his party’s leadership to support it.
Reddy also alleged the country remained in danger under NDA rule and said the current government must be removed.
