'Be prepared for mid-term polls'

There are two interesting news reports in different Telugu dailies on Monday. One report by Andhra Jyothy says there was a talk between Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas and Praja Rajyam Party president Chiranjeevi over a possible post-poll alliance to form the government. It says the PRP might insist on making Chiranjeevi as the Chief Minister with Congress support; and if it is not possible, a BC leader from the Congress should become the CM with the PRP support. To say precisely, Chiranjeevi has no objection to supporting the Congress government, provided D Srinivas will become the Chief Minister. Under any circumstances, he will not accept Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to continue in power. If one can read between the lines, one would understand that it may not be the feeling of Chiranjeevi, but that of Andhra Jyothy!

The second report that appeared in Eenadu is that of Lok Satta president Jayaprakash Narayan’s speech at the party workers’ meeting in the city on Sunday. JP predicts that very soon, there would be mid-term elections in the country in the next two years and in Andhra Pradesh, it will be much earlier. He seems to be of the view that the grand alliance would come to power in the State and the Third Front at the Centre, but because of their inherent weaknesses, both the governments would collapse very soon, leading to mid-term elections.

He even called upon his party workers to be prepared for mid-term polls. Though JP’s could be a far-fetched thinking, but there is definitely some reasoning in it, as everybody knows what sort of coalition the third front could be. While Sakshi’s lead story is as usual that of the Chief Minister, who claimed a “double century” for the Congress in the elections; Eenadu’s banner is about the impending burden on the state’s exchequer on account of fancy promises made by various political parties. It says it is practically impossible to implement these promises because of huge financial commitment.

One wonders why Eenadu has not written this story before elections, because the promises made by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu involve astronomical financial commitments. Had it written the story earlier, it would have educated the voters at least to some extent. But Eenadu wanted the TDP to come to power; and now, it is mentally preparing the people that the promises cannot be implemented!