Fact Check: CM Revanth says Telangana was better off in united AP? No, here’s the truth

Hyderabad: A Telugu e-newspaper clipping of chief minister A Revanth Reddy allegedly looking back at 10 years of Telangana’s statehood and deeming it a ‘mistake’ has gone viral.

The e-paper clipping has the CM saying that joint governance with Andhra Pradesh would have been better for Telangana as currently ‘Telangana has incurred losses, going through financial difficulties and is unable to solve its problems.’ The clipping states that the CM made these statements during a felicitation ceremony for those selected for UPSC interviews.

The e-news clipping was shared on Facebook with the caption, “By saying that joint governance was better, will you now make Telangana rejoin Andhra, Revanth Reddy? I am getting doubts listening to Revanth Reddy’s words. People of Telangana have to be a little careful with this Congress CM.” (Translated from Telugu) (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The statements made by CM Revanth on BRS governance have been taken out of context and shared with false claims.

In one of the viral posts, we found that the news clipping has the Newsline Telugu logo and was dated January 6, 2025. (Archive)

Using this lead, we have found the e-paper published by Newsline Telugu on the same date. The report stated, “CM Revanth Reddy’s comments saying, ‘It was better in joint Andhra Pradesh... We have incurred more losses after we got Telangana’ are kicking up controversy. People of Telangana are widely opposing his comments denigrating the separate State of Telangana. They are saying that it is inappropriate to comment like this while acting as the chief minister of Telangana, which was achieved after enduring many hardships.”

Newsline Telugu stated that the statements regarding the joint governance were made at the felicitation programme for those who cleared the UPSC Mains exam.

Using this information, we have found an ETV Telangana YouTube video that live-streamed the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Civils Abhaya Hastham’ event on January 5, 2025. As mentioned, the event was held to felicitate 20 civil service candidates, who are all set to appear for the UPSC interview. At the event, CM Revanth Reddy spoke for about 15 minutes.

During the speech, CM Revanth said the previous BRS-led government had failed to fill vacancies in the past 10 years. He said that Telangana emerged as an ideal state for having provided 55,143 jobs to unemployed youth across government departments in one year of the Congress government. He gave a call to the UPSC candidates to crack the competition with flying colours and work for the betterment of the State.

At the 22:54-minute mark in the video, CM can be heard saying “The State of Telangana was achieved mainly for the employment opportunities of Telangana youth. In Telangana, as you all know, the previous government did not fill up the vacancies in the government jobs for 10 years. So, the situation has arisen where we think that more injustice has been done to us in the Telangana State than in the united state.”

From this, we see that the statements of CM Revanth regarding a ‘joint governance’ were made while criticising the previous government for not filling vacancies and upholding the aspirations of Telangana youth even after statehood was achieved.

Publications like Eenadu, Samayam, Disha Daily, Times of India, The Hindu, Sakshi and NewsMeter Telugu have reported about the event. The reports state that the CM has criticized the previous government for not filling the vacancies and giving employment to youth. However, none of the reports reference the CM’s remarks regarding ‘joint governance being better’.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the claim is false.