Telangana | Revanth's temple revamp

Invective from saffron commentators has him as ‘Revanthuddin’ and ‘Hazrat Reddy’, but that doesn’t fully account for another facet of Telangana’s Congress chief minister: he’s got going a Hindu devotional policy rath of sorts that’s bustling across the entire span of the state. Several major temples across Telangana are undergoing a massive makeover. The renovation spree, set to cost at least Rs 1,700 crore, also goes beyond the big venues, as generous aid flows to several smaller shrines at places like Bhupalapalli, Wyra, Kamareddy and Mahabubabad.

Revanth Reddy, groomed in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in his student days, clearly knows the syllabus. Three modern gaushalas with veterinarian care, each spread over 50 to 100 acres, are coming up at Vemulawada, Yadagirigutta and Moinabad. A gaushala policy was approved by Revanth’s cabinet, and the state police has often cracked down on illegal transport of cows.

There’s a touch to Revanth’s Hindu outreach that delineates it as his own signature, rather than that of the Congress. On April 6, Revanth, en famille, was at the Gnana Saraswati temple at Basara to initiate his grandson into education. Hundreds of couples, precocious pre-pre-schoolers in tow, throng this shrine on the shores of the Godavari, in north Telangana, daily for the aksharabhyasam ritual. The CM performed another ritual, launching a Rs 225 crore expansion that will treble built-up area at the complex to a pilgrim-friendly 62,000 sq. ft, with spacious queue zones.

In March, he set the ball rolling at the centuries-old Sri Sita Ramachandraswamy Temple in Bhadrachalam, on the Andhra border—also attending the annual kalyanam (wedding) ceremony that draws throngs from both Telugu states. Phase 1 will see upscaled ghats by June 2027, in time for the once-in-12-years Godavari pushkaram.

Also in March, the CM launched a Rs 700 crore facelift of the Omkareshwara and Veerabhadra Swamy temples at Manchirevula, off Hyderabad; part of his Musi riverfront project, the complex is pegged as the ‘Kashi of the South’. Central Telangana’s Vemulawada, the first temple town to get on the renovation chariot (in 2024), is chasing its ambition to be a pilgrim magnet too.

KARMA BEGINS AT HOME

Once done, these temples, with imposing granite prakarams and huge rajagopurams, would last centuries, say endowment officials. Revanth’s pilgrim push entails four major circuits, linking key sites. His endowments haven’t bypassed home. In 2025, the CM drafted blueprints for revamping the Sri Mahalakshmi Venkateswara Swamy temple, known locally as ‘chinna’ (mini) Tirupati, as well as temples in Daulatabad and Kosgi—all in his south Telangana constituency Kodangal. But his drawing board is drawing ever-wider circles. Take the planned mada-veedhis (car-streets) at Warangal’s Bhadrakali temple, or the amenities at the hilltop Kondagattu Sri Anjaneya Swamy temple. Together, Revanth’s temple spree is said to easily surpass his predecessor K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s Rs 1,500 crore Yadagirigutta upgrade.

In a moment of campaign heat, during the Jubilee Hills bypoll in 2025, Revanth had put his party in a pickle by saying, “Congress means Muslims and Muslims means Congress.” In March, he atoned with the words: “I am a staunch, practising Hindu, who believes in karma.”

His confidants echo that. Unlike KCR’s Yadagiri fixation, Revanth is developing temples from Basara, abutting Maharashtra, right up to Andhra, says Vemulawada MLA and Congress whip Aadi Srinivas. “The BJP’s approach is electoral. Our CM, while sticking to secularism, does far greater service to the faith he practises,” he tells India Today.

The BJP, unwilling to cede turf, pins him down to his faux pas. In December, the CM had said, “Hinduism has three crore deities. For celibates, there’s Hanuman, for bigamists, there’s another god, for those fond of alcohol, there’s another...” For the BJP, levity cancels piety. Leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy also cites a substantial hike in minority welfare funds, while others in the party bring up Revanth’s unmet poll promise of a “100 Rama temples”.