Desam thrives on SMSes: The Telugu Desam has never recovered from its defeat at the hands of the Congress, and keeps hoping it will be back in the driving seat soon. Recently, a local TV channel did a survey on the popularity of political parties and concluded that the YSR Congress of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is doing well in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions, while the TD is in a bad position.
Soon after this, some TD sympathisers started sending SMSes to Congress leaders and press reporters. One SMS sent to a Congress MLA claimed that the TD will win 157 seats in the state, while another SMS sent to a press reporter said the TD will win 178 seats. But they did not mention region-wise results. It's surprising that when the state is on the verge of being divided, why a survey of the whole state, as it is, was done. It makes more sense to do the survey after the division and calculate how many seats parties will get in each of the two states. Asked about this, a TD politician denied that the SMSes were sent by anyone in the party.
Prasada Rao sent participants at a meeting into peels of laughter, including Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy . At a function organised to distribute government land to the landless poor, the minister droned on about the government's initiatives for the welfare of the poor. “We want to ensure that no poor man is left with government land,“ Rao said at one point, when obviously what he meant to say was that the government wanted to ensure land for every poor family.
Sensing the perils of public speaking, another minister, Mukesh Goud, preferred not to speak even though the organisers of the meeting urged him to address the gathering.
Rayala T was a red herring
Was the Rayala Telangana pro posal a serious one? There are many theories on why the GoM that drafted the T Bill came out in favour of Rayala T -adding Kurnool and Anantapur from Rayalaseema to the 10 districts of the Telangana. Some say the proposal was made to keep some Congress leaders. But some Coastal Andhra Congress leaders, who are against T, said that it was a game plan of the GoM to divert attention from the Krishna waters.
All political parties in the state have opposed the award and criticised AICC president Sonia Gandhi for it.
The YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam have also launched agitations. It was to divert attention from this hot button issue that the GoM came up with the contentious Rayala T proposal, it is suggested. No sooner was the proposal leaked than it had its desired effect as all parties focused attention on it. Some Congress leaders have gone so far as to claim that the GoM did not make the proposal and it was only to draw the attention away from the Krishna waters issue. ?
Jagan kin's LS dream?
When YSR was chief minis ter, his close friend K.V.P.Ramachandra Rao played a key role. Just as in the YSR Congress, Y.V . Subba Reddy, who is a close relative of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, plays a key role. KVP's dream was to become a Rajya Sabha member. After YSR became CM, KVP's dream became a reality . Now it is Y.V. Subba Reddy's dream to be elected to the LS from Ongole. Though his dream could not be realised when YSR was the CM, it may come true now that Jagan, has launched the YSR Congress. But some party leaders say that the Ongole ticket has been promised to somebody else by Jagan. We have to wait till the next elections to see whether Subba Reddy gets his long-awaited ticket or not.
Secretariat employees from Telangana have gained the upper hand over their counterparts from the Seemandhra region in the flexiboards war. A few days ago, the Seemandhra outfit put up a huge board congratulating the CM on completing three years in office. They described him gratulating the CM on completing three years in office. They described as a warrior for the integrated state. But within days, the Union Cabinet approved the State Reorganisation Bill, which brings the division of the state another step closer. That prompted the Telangana employees to put up a flexi-board of their own thanking one and all across party lines for helping Telangana people realise their dream. It is another story that none of the women ministers in the state Cabinet from the Telangana region made it to the flexiboard, though all the male ministers did. ??
