Konda Surekha

Introduction

Konda Surekha is an Indian politician, a 61-year-old five-term legislator who served as minister for endowments and forests in the Congress government of Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy until she was sacked from the state cabinet on 3 September 2026. Her removal was cleared by the Congress leadership on disciplinary grounds, and the chief minister recommended to Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla that she be dropped from the council of ministers with immediate effect. The proximate trigger was not anything Surekha said or did in office: it was a show-cause notice issued after her adult daughter publicly criticised the party and the chief minister at a Warangal meeting. Surekha responded by accusing the leadership of punishing her for someone else’s speech, alleging a conspiracy against her, and insisting she would remain in the Congress.

Background Information

Surekha represents Warangal East in the Telangana Legislative Assembly. She is a five-term legislator and, at 61, one of the senior figures in the state’s Congress unit; under Chief Minister Revanth Reddy she held the state’s endowments and forests portfolios, the endowments brief being a politically sensitive one in a state where temple administration is closely watched.

The published reporting on her dismissal contains little further biographical detail, but it does establish the family dimension that proved decisive. Surekha’s daughter, Konda Sushmita, is politically outspoken in her own right, and it was her speech — not her mother’s — that set the disciplinary machinery of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee in motion in August 2026. How a party handles the family members of its elected representatives, and whether relatives’ statements can be laid at a legislator’s door, became the central question of the episode, and one Surekha would press forcefully in the days that followed.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Dismissal, not a criminal case. Nothing in this episode involves a criminal charge. It is a party-discipline removal from ministerial office, and the conflicting accounts below are political claims by the parties involved.

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday, 3 September 2026, sacked state endowments and forests minister Konda Surekha from his cabinet, after the Congress leadership cleared her removal on disciplinary grounds. In a communication to state governor Shiv Pratap Shukla, the chief minister recommended her removal from the council of ministers with immediate effect, an official statement by the Chief Minister’s Office said.

The sequence began the week before. On 19 August, Surekha’s daughter, Konda Sushmita, sharply criticised the party and the chief minister at a meeting in Warangal. On 20 August, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee’s disciplinary panel issued Surekha a show-cause notice over her daughter’s remarks. Two weeks later she was out of the cabinet.

The same communication carried a second removal. The chief minister ordered the cancellation of the appointment of senior Congress leader and former minister G Chinna Reddy as vice-chairman of the Telangana Planning Board, also with immediate effect, replacing him with Gadwal Vijayalakshmi. Chinna Reddy had likewise been issued a show-cause notice on 20 August, for his alleged comment that sitting Wanaparthy MLA Megha Reddy had “purchased” the party ticket in the last assembly elections in 2023 by paying huge money to the party bosses. The statement also approved the appointment of Nerella Sharada as chairperson of the Telangana State Commission for Women and former MP G Sudha Rani as chairperson of the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Surekha reacted sharply to her sacking. The Warangal East MLA said the Congress leadership had acted unilaterally without seeking her explanation, and asked why she was being punished for remarks made by her daughter, an independent woman. “I am not worried about my dismissal from the cabinet, but what hurt me was the way it was done, without even seeking my explanation,” she said, speaking to reporters at her residence in Hyderabad. She said she had no reason to condemn her daughter’s comments, arguing that she did not have the authority to question or disown her personal opinion.

At a media conference she released a letter she had addressed to the Congress high command, and questioned why she had been singled out when no action had been taken against others. “Why has no action been taken against the statements made by former MLA T Jagga Reddy and MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy against the chief minister in the past?” she asked. She went further, claiming her removal was part of a larger conspiracy hatched by leaders close to the chief minister and his brothers. “These people also conspired against my followers, particularly my former officer on special duty (OSD) Sumanth and got him arrested in a fabricated case,” she said. She called upon Congress leaders unhappy with developments in the government and party to speak out. “Those leaders who are facing difficulties should come out and raise their voice. Speak up about what is happening in the government. Otherwise, there will be no option but to suffer the consequences,” she said, urging the Revanth Reddy government to “correct and change” its approach, particularly with municipal corporation elections approaching.

Current Status

Surekha has ruled out leaving the party. “I will continue in the party. I will attend the assembly sessions as an MLA,” she said after her dismissal. Chinna Reddy could not be reached for comment on his own removal. Gadwal Vijayalakshmi has been appointed vice-chairman of the Telangana Planning Board in his place, with the appointments of Nerella Sharada and G Sudha Rani to the State Commission for Women and the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority approved in the same communication. As of the most recent reporting — published 4 September 2026 — Surekha remained out of the cabinet, no reinstatement had been reported, and no legal process had been reported against her in connection with the episode.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The dismissal ended, at a stroke, a ministerial career attached to five consecutive legislative terms — and ended it over speech that was not her own, through a process that, by her account, never sought her side. Surekha’s response has kept the episode politically alive: she has cast herself as the target of an internal conspiracy, released her correspondence with the high command, and urged other discontented Congress leaders to raise their voices. Her political identity has shifted from cabinet minister to internal critic — one who says she will stay and face the assembly as an ordinary MLA rather than defect. The parallel removal of Chinna Reddy in the same communication signalled how quickly the Revanth Reddy government will act against officeholders seen as sources of dissent.