Telangana Neta Natter | TG, AP Still Undivided... On Letterheads

Some government files move slowly. This one appeared to move backwards in time. The Telangana government's panchayat raj and rural development department found itself at the centre of online ridicule after an official memo surfaced carrying the letterhead ‘Government of Andhra Pradesh’ — a title that vanished with the state's bifurcation nearly 12 years ago. Issued by Special Chief Secretary Dana Kishore, the communication instructed district collectors to organise orientation programmes for Praja Palana Pragathi Pranalika, and other Telangana-specific initiatives. Ironically, while every paragraph spoke the language of Telangana's governance, the letterhead stubbornly clung to the undivided past. The vintage header was quickly spotted by social media users, who flooded timelines with memes, sarcasm and questions over how such a basic error escaped official scrutiny. The department swiftly replaced the memo with a corrected version bearing the Telangana government letterhead, but by then the original had already gone viral.

Ministers make headlines in absentia

In Telangana's corridors of power, what ministers do outside meeting rooms is increasingly making bigger headlines than the meetings themselves. The latest Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy generated less buzz than the conspicuous absence of endowments minister Konda Surekha. Although she was reportedly in Hyderabad, she skipped the Cabinet, setting off speculation that she was unhappy over not being consulted on the appointment of the chairman and members of the Yadagirigutta Temple Board. If that kept political circles busy, tourism minister Jupally Krishna Rao added a visual twist. While the Chief Minister was chairing a review meeting of the tourism department in Hyderabad, Jupally was nowhere in the conference room. Instead, he was making waves — quite literally. The minister uploaded a video on X showing himself taking a leisurely swim in the agricultural well at his farmhouse in Kollapur. The contrast was hard to miss: one minister absent amid political whispers, another absent but highly visible on social media.

Revanth's kitchen cabinet spices up familial ties

From dribbling a football alongside global icon Lionel Messi to flipping puffed-up puris in his kitchen, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy seems equally comfortable on the pitch and at the stove. The latest viral video of his has nothing to do with Cabinet meetings, political speeches or policy decisions. Instead, it offers a glimpse of ‘Chef Revanth’ in action, seen patiently frying golden puris at home while his three-year-old grandson watches from the kitchen counter like a strict food critic waiting for the final dish. The backstory makes the moment even more relatable. The little boy reportedly declared he would eat breakfast only if his grandfather made the puris himself. Rather than negotiating with the tiny boss, Revanth simply accepted the challenge, rolled up his sleeves and headed to the kitchen. The clip has resonated because it mirrors countless Indian households where children set impossible conditions and grandparents happily surrender. For a few minutes, the Chief Minister wasn't running a state. He was just a doting grandfather making breakfast to keep the youngest member of the family smiling.

Sridhar is synonymous with Brand Hyderabad

Tolkien, with his 'cannot be forgotten once heard', or read ‘one ring to rule them all’, just might approve the spirit of that famous quote from Lord of the Rings if he were to hear IT & industries minister D. Sridhar Babu’s catchphrase – ‘Hyderabad is’ - or at times - ‘is fast becoming a global hub’, which it is in some ways. Be it at BioAsia, or at a factory inauguration, or at an aerospace event, the minister in charge of attracting investments, and keeping industries rolling, seasons his speeches with references to how Telangana’s capital city is at the global forefront, well, on many fronts. At the BioAsia launch, the minister mused about Hyderabad as an innovation-led life sciences centre. At a factory opening he talked about how cell and gene therapies and rare disease research have found a home in the city. For aerospace, he waved the global hub banner again, citing global manufacturers, 1,000+ MSMEs and exports topping Rs. 28,000 crore — the sort of checklist that many can only envy. At the National Defence Innovation Conclave he promised to back young scientists and startups to make the city a defence innovation hub. And before a German delegation he gamely ticked off IT, electronics, pharma and aviation as areas where Hyderabad is steadily emerging on the world map. The refrain is persistent, reflecting persuasive optimism, and branding.

It helps for parties to say: To SIR with love

During a recent meeting poll officials held with political parties, the officials were surprised to find all the parties in unison opposing the instructions not to set up ‘help desks’ for the ongoing SIR exercise. When DEO R.V. Karnan suggested avoiding the setting up of help desks, representatives from all the recognised political parties protested against it and stood from their seats. The surprised official wondered about this sudden unity of purpose, especially after all the parties complained against each other over the very same help desks. Karnan clearly hit a sensitive nerve over the help desks issue as parties accused each other of using this facility to undermine listing of their supporters in the SIR by the other parties. But with the prospect of the ‘help’ set to disappear, they all rose as one and said they will not complain any more against each other on this issue. Who says political parties cannot unite or work together at all?

When Surekha threw a fit... and Kadiam rolled his eyes

There is never a dull moment in politics, especially when a bunch of people within a party do not get along. And if that party happens to be the Congress, with its famed "internal democracy" a bit of wrangling in public could well be par for the course. The latest such incident to spill over is the battle between minister Konda Surekha, and MLA Kadiam Srihari, both from the erstwhile Warangal district, with Surekha reportedly complaining to the party high command, and the local command as well, alleging and charging Kadiam of stepping out of his bounds by holding review meetings with endowments department officials, a portfolio that Surekha holds. Kadiam came up with his explanation – a review is when officials come to him, and not when he goes to meet with them to discuss an issue. Surekha has been reportedly feeling not too happy for a while with state of affairs when it came to her in the party, and in the government, while Kadiam, who won on a BRS ticket and for all practical purposes, threw his lot with the Congress, is officially still a BRS MLA. All eyes are on the Gandhi Bhavan, the TPCC headquarters now on how it will deal with this conundrum.

Naidu imbibes Vatican to slam Jagan

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu turned Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's latest reference to Amaravati into a fresh dose of political satire, quipping that Andhra Pradesh should be “thankful he didn't call it Vatican” after the former chief minister coined the term ‘MAVIGUN’ – a catchphrase covering Machilipatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur regions. Not one to let go of a good opportunity to put down his bete noire, Naidu said Jagan seemed determined to invent everything except the word ‘Amaravati’ when it comes to the new capital for Andhra Pradesh. For Naidu, it is only Amaravati, and as far as YSRC is concerned, it is the one that is trying hard to derail the new capital city from coming up. As far as Naidu is concerned, Jagan dislikes even uttering the name Amaravati, and prefers unusual aliases instead, making it uncertain whether the former CM is ignorant, or deliberately attempts to muddy the waters, which according to Naidu, is for the people to judge.

In AP, it's beer versus soft drinks

Bitter? Or sweet? That was the question MLA and TD’s AP chief Palla Srinivasa Rao attempted to grapple with the other day. The Gajuwaka MLA, apparently a bit excited over proposals to set up beach shacks at Visakhapatnam, pitched for beer as a far better drink when it comes to health than aerated soft drinks. Teetotaller he may be, but Rao was clear when he said that a standard soft drink bottle of 335 ml contains 35 to 40 grams of sugar, while a 650 ml bottle of beer barely has any sugar. That soon set off a debate in this seaside city with folks saying they prefer taking gulps of soft drinks with their biryanis instead of quaffing beer, adding when that beer goes down, some of it gets turned into sugar anyway, and raising the question of why when beer drinking is warned as harmful, no such warning comes with the sugary soft drinks. Whether beer gets sold or not at the beach shacks when they come up, one thing could be certain – cops standing not far away with breathalysers to catch anyone tipply and attempting to drive a vehicle.

Contributions from L. Venkat Ram Reddy, Neeraj Kumar, Md Nizamuddin, Balu Pulipaka; Md Ilyas, K.M.P. Patnaik