Viral video and audio clips of BRS leaders have caused huge embarrassment to the party leadership, especially during this election year. In the last week alone, clips of some half a dozen BRS leaders involved in various incidents have provided ammunition to the Opposition to attack the ruling party. Jangaon MLA Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy was seen engaged in an argument with his daughter, who has accused him of forging her signature to grab a piece of land. Then there was a purported audio clip featuring a BRS MLA from Hyderabad who could be heard talking to a GHMC woman corporator in lewd language. Another audio clip purportedly had BRS MLC Kaushik Reddy threatening a journalist with dire consequences in Huzurabad constituency, while a video of BRS MLC Kadiam Srihari taking a dig at T. Rajaiah, his own party MLA from Station Ghanpur, for indulging in corruption were among those that have left the party leadership red-faced. Meanwhile, BRS circles are abuzz with reports that the leak of video and audio clips are the making of their own ilk who have no love lost for those featured in the clips.
BRS-BJP POLITICOS FIGHT OVER INJURED MAN
A competitive spirit to make a mark can sometimes go to bizarre extent, especially when it comes to scoring brownie points and establishing a reputation as a Good Samaritan. Such was the case with BJP’s Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind and BRS MLA from Armoor A. Jeevan Reddy recently. Just the other day, they both happened to stop at around the same time when they saw a man injured in an accident on the Nizamabad-Jagdalpur section of NH 63. Arvind immediately responded and instructed his security staff to help the man and get him to a hospital. Jeevan Reddy would have none of it, in the end ‘winning’ the day by taking the elderly Gadepally Chinna Ganga Reddy of Munipally in his car to a hospital in Armoor, leaving Arvind and his staff bemused, and onlookers wondering why the tussle happened over the injured person. The optics of politics is murky after all.
MEDIA GIVEN RUN-AROUND DURING G20 AGRO MEET
The route to a destination is a simple straight line but trust the bureaucracy to turn it into a long, circuitous one. This was the experience for media personnel covering the meeting of G20 agriculture ministers in Hyderabad. Security personnel were adamant that the media personnel cannot enter the venue through the main entrance. Officials from the publicity department had to throw their hands up and escort the media into the hall via a long 15-minute route around the expansive Hitex venue, only to find that the room where Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar was to address the media was just some 15 feet from the main entrance. The apparently embarrassed officials said such a thing would not recur, but then, that will be a story for another day.
YSRC OBSESSES OVER PAWAN KALYAN’S ‘VARAHI’
YSRC leader and AP minister Ambati Rambabu terming Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan’s battle-tank-like campaign vehicle ‘Varahi’ a ‘pig’ has kicked up a new controversy. Pawan claims that the deity Varahi will protect him from threats to his life from supari gangs which he claims have been hired by his political rivals. Rambabu who earlier swore allegiance to the same deity, did call the vehicle a pig, saying Pawan was roaming around on the back of a pig and flinging mud at his opponents. He called on the Kapus not to run behind the ‘Varahi’ and questioned why Pawan, complaining of threats to his life, had not approached the police. Clearly, when it comes to slinging mud at each other, politicians do not need a particular season to do so.
VIP CONVOYS CREATE TRAFFIC HELL
The past few weeks have not been kind to the citizens of Hyderabad, especially those trying to get to their destinations. With several VIP convoys criss-crossing the city and vehicles being halted to make way for them, the traffic soon turned haywire. To add to the mayhem some cops, rushing about in their vehicles, have been spotted pushing the regular citizenry to the curb. With the 21-day Dashabdi Utsavalu of the state government over, people are hoping that the crazy and unexpected traffic stops, detours and long waits on the roads are things of the past. Only time will tell.
ANTI-YSRC BUS YATRA FIZZLES OUT
There are times when just having the drive to do something may not be enough, something the TD’s women’s wing president and former MLA from Pyakaraopeta, Vangalapudi Anita, discovered after her ‘Bhavishyattuku Guarantee Chaitanya Ratham’ bus yatra fizzled out. Anita wanted to go on the bus tour to highlight the ‘corruption of the YSRC government’ but there were no takers. Even the few TD leaders, mostly from the party’s lower rungs, who joined her, left in their cars after a sumptuous lunch and a few selfies with Anita on the bus, leaving YSRC folks snickering over the fizzled out yatra.
MUDRAGADA’S LETTER TO PAWAN KALYAN BACKFIRES
Mudragada Padmanabham is often referred to as a ‘man of letters’ due to his habit of sending notes that usually trigger political unrest. His latest missive to Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, supporting YSRC Kakinada MLA Dwarampudi Chadrasekhar Reddy, saying he had done much for the Kapu community and Pawan was only a movie star, has resulted in a new development with Pawan’s supporters sending money to Mudragada and asking him to pass it on to Dwarampudi for his ‘help’ to the Kapu community. Whether Mudragada will cash in on this or send the money back to those who sent it to him, remains to be seen.
