Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday denied his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan’s claims that Kerala has become the first state to completely eradicate extreme poverty.
Countering the points raised by Vijayan’s letter to him earlier in the day, Revanth Reddy was quick to respond, raising questions on Kerala’s claims on poverty eradication and governance.
“You tweeted that by late 2025, Kerala is set to become the first state to completely eliminate extreme poverty. It’s April 2026. In your post, you talk about 64,006 families still receiving micro-schemes. I’m clearly asking: Has extreme poverty been eliminated? Has the November 1, 2025 announcement been independently verified?” he asked.
Reddy said he had maintained “respect and generosity” in his earlier criticism of the Kerala government, but alleged that the latter had used “language in bad taste”.
He particularly took issue with Vijayan’s reliance on the NITI Aayog Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2023-24 index, arguing that it reflects “the end of a decade of misgovernance” before the Congress comes to power in December 2023.
“Telangana’s per capita income has reached $1.6 million.” $3.87 lakh, which puts it ahead of major states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala,” he said, citing data from the RBI Statistical Manual 2024-25.
Regarding the verdict, the Telangana Chief Minister said that while he respected the Niti Aayog’s corruption ratings, some issues in Kerala remained unresolved. He referred to the gold smuggling case in Kerala and the alleged links with individuals associated with the Prime Minister’s Office.
Explaining the roadmap for Telangana, Reddy said the state aims to become a trillion-dollar economy within a decade under the ‘Telangana Rising’ vision. Key projects include the proposed Future City near Hyderabad and the National Industrial Corridor in Zaheerabad.
He also expressed hope that the future government of Kerala would implement the vision of ‘Nava Keralam’ effectively.
