Revanth Responds to Pinarayi's Controversial Comments
"I also promise, when you visit my state, I will give you every respect a host must give a guest,” Revanth Reddy stated in a formal response to Kerala Chief Minister’s comments against him.
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy chose to end the verbal war of words in a respectable manner after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan used derogatory words in Malayalam against him, while giving a strong disapproval of the remarks made against him earlier as a final response on Tuesday.
“While I chose to conduct myself respectfully and gracefully in my criticism of your government's performance, you have chosen to use language of poor taste. I won't respond with a rash comment to a dash comment. I also promise, when you visit my state, I will give you every respect a host must give a guest,” he stated in a formal response to the Kerala Chief Minister, while highlighting Telangana's superior economic growth and pointing out several aspects of his claims to have eradicated poverty and questioning the unresolved corruption cases.
While addressing the “On Data and Its Vintage” topic, the Chief Minister said that Vijayan continued to cite the NITI Aayog SDG Index 2023-24 as a verdict on the present state of Telangana. That index captures the tail end of a decade of BRS-BJP misrule, which ended in December 2023, and as the Congress government completed 28 months, he should judge us by that record.
“While Telangana's GSDP in 2024-25 stood at 16.12 lakh crore, growing at 10.1%, above the national average of 9.9%. Our per capita income reached 3.87 lakh, making Telangana the highest-ranked major state in India by this metric, surpassing Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Kerala as per the RBI's own Handbook of Statistics 2024-25. You are right that Kerala's achievements are cumulative. My limited point: show the people of Kerala what happened specifically under your tenure.”
While talking about extreme poverty, Revanth said, “You tweeted that 'by late 2025, Kerala is set to become the first state to completely eradicate extreme poverty.' We are in April 2026. In your letter, you speak of 64,006 families still receiving micro-plans. I ask plainly: has extreme poverty been eradicated? Was the November 1, 2025, declaration independently verified?”
While addressing the unanswered questions on corruption, Revanth said that he respected NITI Aayog's corruption rankings. “But if Kerala is demonstrably clean, why does the Kerala gold smuggling case with documented links to individuals connected to your Chief Minister's office remain unresolved?” he asked, and further questioned why the 4.5 kg of gold allegedly misappropriated from the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple has still not been accounted for.
Talking about the vision for the state, the Chief Minister reiterated, “Telangana Rising is our vision, a $1 trillion economy within a decade, anchored by the Future City near Hyderabad and the National Industrial Corridor at Zahirabad.”
“I believe the new government of Kerala will implement the 'Nava Keralam' vision and the people of Kerala will decide soon, as it should be,” he prophesied.
Earlier, Vijayan came up with a hard-hitting post on his 'X' handle stating that political differences are natural, and that Revanth Reddy's statements lack factual backing. In a detailed letter attached with the 'X' post addressing the Telangana CM, Vijayan said the experience of the people of Kerala was "vastly different" from what Reddy had portrayed.
The whole controversy began after Reddy used the words "nee po mone Vijaya" while referring to Vijayan on April 1 during a UDF campaign roadshow in Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram ahead of the Assembly polls. Addressing party workers, he used the popular Malayalam film dialogue from 'Narasimham', starring Mohanlal. Invoking the famous line "Nee po mone Dinesha", he adapted it to target Vijayan, saying "Nee po mone Vijaya", which drew loud cheers from the crowd. Reddy went further, claiming that Vijayan's "time is over" and that his "expiry date has passed".
Responding to these allegations earlier, Vijayan had said that the Telangana CM was "misinformed" and accused him of "ridiculing" Kerala and its people while trying to hide the weaknesses of his own state. In a later response, Reddy defended his remarks and said that many of the statistics cited by Vijayan were taken from the NITI Aayog SDG Index 2023 24, arguing that the data was already outdated.
