Jr Ntr Saya '100 judges needed to probe Cong corruption'

Telugu Desam’s latest sensation Jr NTR is taking out one salvo after the other to attack the Congress government and Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, so that his speech does not become routine everywhere. Addressing a road show in East Godavari district on Monday, Jr NTR declared that if TDP came to power in the next elections, it would appoint a judicial commission to probe into the corruption charges against the Chief Minister. ‘In fact, one judge will not be enough to investigate into the corrupt deeds of YSR. It requires at least 100 judges. Such is the magnitude of YSR’s corruption,” he said. Well, Jr NTR should have also made a study of the magnitude of corruption in Chandrababu Naidu regime and declared how many more judges were needed to probe into his graft.

Jagan factor at play in Anantapur

The Jagan factor was at play in the selection of Congress candidates in Anantapur for the assembly constituencies. So much so that the District Congress Committee (DCC) president P Venugopal Reddy, who is a close follower of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, had to eat a humble pie as he was denied ticket from Rayadurg.

The seat was given to K Ramachandra Reddy, a close relative of Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, who is business partner of CM’s son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. Though the DCC chief was defeated by industrialist M Govinda Reddy in the last elections, he was nursing hopes of coming good this time.

For starters, Ramachandra Reddy is the joint managing director of Obulapuram mining company (OMC) located in D Hirehal mandal of Rayadurg assembly constituency on the Karnataka border and Gali is OMC’s MD as well as promoter of Brahmini Steels, which is setting up a mega steel factory in YSR’s Kadapa district.

Sources told media that Venugopal Reddy had complained to the CM about direct involvement of OMC owners in local politics. “Venugopal was asked to shut up and mind his business. But he didn’t expect that he would be given a raw deal when it came to selection of candidates,” an insider in the party said.

With more acreage of quality iron ore mines of OMC located in Rayadurg segment, the iron ore tycoons want to have a total grip on local politics so that their business can flourish, a source said. Apart from Gali, his brother Karunakar Reddy and close follower B Sreeramulu are serving as ministers in the BJP-led government in Karnataka.

Insiders said the mining tycoons had laid out a fullfledged plan a few months ago to ensure Ram a ch a n d r a ’s smooth entry from Rayadurg seat by launching social service activities like performing mass marriages, drilling borewells for drinking water purposes and providing financial assistance for poor students in Rayadurg area.

“What more, Ramachandra Reddy plunged into serious election campaign 10 days ago even before his name was finalised for Rayadurg,” a source revealed. Sources said the Congress top brass dropped enough hints to Ramachandra Reddy, that he would be “the” official nominee and not the DCC chief. “Armed with this assurance, Ramachandra went about claiming to the voters that he will develop the area in all aspects like no one had done before,” a follower of the DCC chief added.

TRS-TDP high drama!

The high drama enacted by Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhara Rao, declaring that his party has come out of the Mahakootami and would contest all seats in Telangana has created ripples in the state politics, and of course, created sleepless nights for the electronic media journalists.

KCR called up media offices and told them about the failure of talks with Telugu Desam party. Since it is a late night development, it could not become a banner headline for the dailies on Tuesday, but was given a lot of prominence, though it has become hot news for the television channels. Within minutes of KCR calling up the media, TDP senior leader Yerran Naidu denied the talk that the Mahakootami was split and that the talks were still going on. In fact, even after KCR’s announcement, the TRS leaders T Harish Rao and E Rajender continued to hold talks with the TD leaders.

So, Sakshi described it as a TRS shock to Mahakootami, while Andhra Jyothy said the TRS had cut off from the Kootami and Eenadu played it down saying there is still stalemate in seat sharing in Mahakootami. The Congress manifesto made it to the top story in all the three dailies, of course with different headlines. Sakshi said the manifesto reflected aspirations of common man; AJ quoted Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s comment that “My tenure is a golden period in the state history” while Eenadu’s headline is again YSR’s remark that “there is no match for him.”

The simmering discontent within the Congress over the list of candidates has become the second lead in Andhra Jyothy, which tried to project that there was going to be a lot of dissidence in the Congress against the contestants. Eenadu, too, has made a negative story as its second lead, stating that YSR’s claim of 234 MLA seats and 36 MP seats was over-estimation, and that the ground situation is far from his expectations.

UP chief minister Mayawati’s low-key public meeting also made it to the front page news in Sakshi and Eenadu. And the launch of Nano car by Tatas was also a major news for Sakshi

Election Tamasha: Stampede fear in PR office

Whenever Chiranjeevi’s new flicks hit theatres, proprietors of cinema halls used to take utmost security measures fearing stampede at the ticket counters.

Now, a similar situation is prevailing at Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam headquarters as the selection of PR candidates for the upcoming polls is coming to an end.

This has prompted the Praja Rajyam authorities to tighten security at the their central offices.

Allotment of Assembly tickets has kept the security staff of the PR central offices on their toes.

The swanky building at Jubilee Hills, which houses Geeta Arts office, a film production house of Mr Allu Aravind, brother-in-law of Chiranjeevi, has turned into a fortress.

The glass walls of the building have been covered with plywood boards to minimise damage in case disgruntled aspirants turn violent. Mr Aravind is playing a key role in the selection process of the PR candidates.

The fledgling party has already tasted the wrath of party leaders who attacked PR offices in various districts when the state committee was announced.

Interestingly, the PR leadership is conducting “counselling classes” for aspirants who are vying for the same seat, so as to pacify the discontent among them.

Along with Mr Aravind and Mr Devender Goud, Chiranjeevi is taking part in these meetings to justify the reasons for chosing a particular candidate.

Chiranjeevi has warned ticket aspirants in his party not to resort to dissidence if they are denied tickets.

He said any dissident activity would be dealt with firmly.

The Praja Rajyam is now giving final touches to the list of candidates. The party leadership is planning to release the first list with 70 candidates either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“We are expecting a large number of people to migrate from the Grand Alliance after the Telugu Desam releases its first list. So, we are not finalising candidates in segments where Mahakutami members are at loggerheads,” said a close aide of Chiranjeevi.

Jayasudha takes on Jr NTR

Actor and Congress nominee from Secunderabad Assembly constituency, Jayasudha, took on actor Junior NTR in her blog Jayam Manade (victory is ours).

She belittled Junior NTR and wrote:
"It is funny how legacies are carried on in our state. Many people talk about how NTR (Jr.) inherited the charisma of his illustrious grandfather. I do not know what to say about such comparisons. No doubt NTR (Jr.) is a very good actor. He also seems to have all the famous dialogues of his grandfather on his finger tips but when NTR (Sr.) spoke there was a soul to his words.

I think people get so carried away with the memory of a great name that they seem to forget everything else. It does not seem to matter if the man in question is a womaniser or a drunk, all that matters is the last name. It is so nauseating to see all that is being played out in the name of NTR that I just avoid it. The real NTR fan will know that there can only be one NTR. "

No fancy promises: YSR

Unlike the Telugu Desam manifesto, which promised free colour TV sets and cash transfer scheme for the poor, the Congress manifesto released on Monday is simple and straight: the party would take forward its development and welfare agenda with more vigour.

“We don’t make fancy and impracticable promises in air. Our feet are firmly on the ground. We will take our existing programmes forward with more vigour and eradicate poverty,” Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said while releasing the manifesto. He rejected the theory that the Rs 2 a kg rice scheme and free power to farmers were populist schemes. “They are a sort of incentives to the people who work hard,” he said.

Among the new promises made in the manifesto are: nine-hour uninterrupted power supply to agriculture free of cost and round-the-clock power supply to the other sectors throughout the state; creating a hutless state in the next five years, supply of LPG connections to all houses and increasing per head rice quota from 4 kg to 6 kg a month at Rs 2 a kg.

Besides, the manifesto promised extension of “pavala vaddi” scheme to rural artisans, 100 per cent electrification of all households, construction of toilets for all weaker section houses and issuance of biometric identity cards to all citizens in the state.

'Jump jilanees' in Congress

Now that the Congress has announced its list of candidates, defections have started from it into the other parties.

Following the resignation of senior MLA Penmatsa Sambasiva Raju, others also started looking for jumping into other parties. Kakinada MLA Mutta Gopalakrishna resigned from the party and is planning to join the PRP. Another MLA from Santhanuthalapadu Dara Sambaiah also quit the party and joined the BSP in the presence of Mayawati.

Minister Gollapalli Surya Rao, who was also denied the ticket, raised serious allegations against Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, stating that corruption had become rampant during YSR regime and that he had been denied ticket only because he question a small portion of corruption in his district involving J C Diwakar Reddy. He is also looking up to the PRP.

More “jump jilanees” are in the offing, Gandhi Bhavan sources say.

Who is the WInner for CM????

The election process has been set in motion. With the issuance of poll notification on Monday, tension has started mounting up in all political parties. Compared to all the other parties, the Congress is sitting pretty by announcing the list of candidates well in advance and Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is oozing confidence over the Congress party’s victory in the elections. The Chief Minister gave a series of interviews to the media on Sunday and happily posed for photographs. Among the three major Telugu dailies, Andhra Jyothy gave a positive headline for YSR, stating that the people’s verdict would be in favour of the Congress. Eenadu carried the interview in its election special page, stating that corruption would not be an issue in the elections, as no allegation of corruption was proved. Sakshi, however, used the interview to attack the Telugu Desam, saying that Naidu was giving impracticable “all free” promises, knowing fully well that he would not come to power. On the other hand, the Opposition parties, particularly the Telugu Desam is in disarray, as there is no progress in the seat sharing talks among partners of Mahakootami. As regards Praja Rajyam, the first list might be released on Monday, but it is still groping in the dark about its election symbol. Sakshi suspects it to be a clever strategy on the part of Telangana Rashtra Samithi to prevent dissidence within the party. Eenadu made it a big banner, stating that the Telugu Desam and TRS were adamant on their seats and that KCR had fixed a deadline till Monday afternoon. The appointment of A K Mohanty as new DGP, demise of yesteryears’ hero T L Kantha Rao, death of four Andhra students in the USA, decision of IPL to shift the cricket matches to foreign land and disqualification of Varun Gandhi by the Election Commission are the other important developments that were carried in brief on the front pages of the dailies.

'Chiru Said CBN Becomes PM' .Says Jr NTR

Jr NTR has been using logic and digging history to convince the people those are attending his road shows. Freshly he recalled a statement given by Chiranjeevi on Chandrababu in the year 2002. “While NTR brought glory to ‘Teluguvaadi Atmagouravam’ in National Level, it is Nara Chandrababu Naidu who took the pride of Telugu to international level with his hitec ideas. I’m not saying this. The new leader who started a party with the buzz word ‘maarpu’ said this long back in a film Function held at Vijayawada (Indra). On that occasion that film star turned politician said that Chandrababu is the best CM and he has the caliber to become Prime Minister as well”, said Jr NTR at Bikkavolu road show of East Godavari today. The response from PRP would obviously be silent. But still let us see if there will be any response.