SAMARAMEEE : Jagan VS Sonia

Andhra Pradesh has witnessed heavy rains last week, but the political scene became very hot and naturally, there was a lot of spicy stuff for the media to churn out sensational stories.

The week, however, began on a happy note: our Telugu singing sensation Sreeramchandra Mynampati bagged the prestigious Indian Idol-5 title in the Sony Entertainment Television on the Independence Day by beating his rivals with a very high margin in the popular vote; and our favourite website “greatandhra.com” bagged the prestigious Tata Docomo-Local TV Media Award under the most popular website (general) category. Kudos to Sreeram and Venkat!

Yet another positive development was the call given by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to the Maoists to come to the negotiating table and the response from the Maoist leader Kishanji agreeing for conditional talks. However, the Andhra Pradesh government extended the ban on the Maoist party and its six frontal organizations for one more year.

Another interesting development on the non-political front was the release of disgraced former chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju from his 19-month long judicial custody, after the High Court granted him bail in the sensational Rs 14,000 crore accounting fraud case. His release is a classic example of how big people can get away with the scandals while lesser mortals suffer imprisonment for petty offences.

The sensation of the week on non-political front was expose of drugs racket in the Telugu film industry, which came to light with the arrest of actor Ravi Teja's brothers Raghu and Bharat, who were caught red-handed while purchasing cocaine from a Nigerian three days back. More and more names are coming out with every passing day, sending shivers down the spine of several bigwigs in the Tollywood and also in the political and bureacratic circles. Hope there would be more spice on this next week.

Coming to political front, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi tried to consolidate its gains of the recent by-elections by spreading its wings to rest of the Telangana. The day-long bandh and road blockade in Mahbubnagar district in protest against the smashing of sluice gates of Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme was aimed at hitting the Telugu Desam Party below the belt. Simultaneously, there was a mass exodus of the TDP leaders in different parts of the region into the TRS, strengthening its cadre base, much to the disgruntlement of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.

Now, let us come to the hottest topic of the week. As the week closes, it is pretty evident that the Congress high command has more or less closed all the doors on Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who is all set to resume his third round of Odarpu Yatra in Prakasam district. The anti-Jagan camp, surprisingly led by union minister Daggubti Purandareshwari and her MLA-husband Venkateshwara Rao, worked overtime in Delhi to widen the gap between the high command and the young MP.

Most part of the week, the Jagan drama took place in New Delhi. The high command summoned pro-Jagan MLAs to Delhi and gave them dressing down for taking part in the yatra. Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel told them in no uncertain terms that they should not take part in Jagan’s yatra, while Chief Minister K Rosaiah tried to prevail upon mines minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy to drop the yatra.

The Daggubati couple made all out efforts to run down Jagan. They made the MLAs write a letter to Jagan, questioning the propriety of taking out the Odarpu Yatra against the wishes of the high command and also his intentions behind talking out the “political yatra.” They advised him to follow the commitment and sincerity of Rahul Gandhi in strengthening the party and the country, without aspiring for any post or position in the government. They also sought to know why he was not denying the reports that he was launching a new political party.

On the other hand, the letter purported to have been written by Jagan’s uncle Y S Vivekananda Reddy to Sonia Gandhi expressing his unflinching loyalty to the Nehru-Indira Gandhi family and praising Sonia for making his brother Y S Rajasekhara Reddy chief minister twice, created fluttets in the political circles. The letter was apparently leaked by anti-Jagan camp; but the episode turned out to be storm in tea cup, as Viveka extended his support to Jagan.

The high command’s threats and warnings, however, did not have any impact on Jagan and his group. He is adamant on continuing the yatra. Though some MLAs are in two minds after the high command’s order, there are still some other MLAs who asserted that they would go with Jagan. In fact, Balineni said he was ready to forego the cabinet berth for Jagan.

As if giving the episode a climatic touch, Jagan’s loyalist Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, former TTD chairman, started his fast unto death at Tirupati and it is turning out to be yet another show of strength by Jagan supporters!