Andhra Pradesh Neta Natter | Naidu Takes To ‘Hiss-tory’ To Warn Friends

All it needs is to cross one square to notch up a win. But, in a games of snakes and ladders, the snake is ever-present next to the victory box, and could send the player back to square one. It’s a hard lesson on starting over and, as someone who has learnt it only too well, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu the other day asked people not to play snakes and ladders with him as his hard efforts to provide welfare and to develop the state go in vain when people elect someone who comes from nowhere to power only to derail all welfare initiatives and ruin the state. Naidu’s homily came at Sidhantham in West Godavari district where he distributed pattadar passbooks to farmers. His indication of who the snakes are was clear – the YSRC that swept the TD aside in 2019 to gain power in the state. Naidu drove home the point saying it was becoming a tough task for him to restore the state’s past glory and to ‘uplift’ people all over again. For people, elections can be a game of chance but for Naidu, it’s a different game altogether.

Even a minister can get the trash moved

How hard can it be to get a pile of garbage cleaned off a street for a minister? Turns out, it is not as easy a task as the minister would have imagined. Getting a taste of what common people go through was civil supplies minister Nadendla Manohar. While touring his Tenali constituency a few days ago, Nadendla instructed municipal officials to clear a large heap of garbage. The officials, displaying the customary efficiency reserved for receiving ministerial instructions, promptly nodded, agreed and then apparently forgot all about it. When the minister returned to the same spot a couple of days later, the garbage was still there — patiently waiting for government attention. So were the officials, armed with an explanation that would make any bureaucracy proud. The waste could not be removed immediately, they reportedly said, because tenders had to be called, which led to Nadendla reminding them that the municipality already owned tractors and JCBs. And finally realising that orders alone were insufficient, Nadendla adopted a more effective administrative tool — sitting on the roadside and refusing to leave. Within two hours, sanitation workers materialised, the garbage vanished and officials rediscovered their efficiency.

Feet-washing, and pulling the carpet

As political challenges go, this one has set some feet stomping. It all began when Kavali MLA Dagumati Venkata Krishna Reddy declared that he would wash in public, the feet of former YSRC MLA Ramireddy Prathap Kumar Reddy, provided the latter returned the alleged corruption money linked to the Amrut-1 scheme during the YSRC regime. Quickly shoeing in on the issue, Ramireddy countered that he would wash the MLA's feet if victims of the alleged `100-crore scam got their money back, referring to allegations of the MLA’s involvement in this particular case. He also threw in a bonus pedicure promising a public foot-washing ceremony if the government fenced at least 50 acres of allegedly encroached public land. As the two leaders made plans to outwash each other’s feet, the people of Kavali who have been running around them to get reliable drinking water supply in many parts of Kavali have been left to watch pedicure politics play out.

As Vizag mourned, Ganta eyes were on cricket

Remember Nero? That Roman ruler who became famous for playing a fiddle while Rome burned? Finding himself bracketed in a similar manner was former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, who, as Vizag slowly began coping with the accident at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on June 8 that took lives, apparently had his attention focused elsewhere. Even as the city mourned the accident and the deaths of workers, Ganta shared updates from the inauguration of the Andhra Premier League cricket tournament, expressing hopes that the league would nurture young talent and grow in popularity like the IPL. The popular opinion doing the rounds is that Ganta may have hoped to hit the ball out of the park by pushing the APL, but this time, his focus on cricket may well turn out to be an instance of self-inflicted hit-wicket case.

TD’s Bonela ends up ‘helping’ his rivals

Parvathipuram MLA Bonela Vijaychandra from the ruling TD has suddenly turned into a poster boy for the Opposition YSRC which apparently has not been able to hide its glee as Bonela’s crusade against corrupt officials in his district started making news. Bonela had been going at it targeting education, irrigation, stamps & registration officials of late. His demand to the district education officer to explain how a contract for yoga mats for schools went to the spouse of a staffer in the DEO’s office, and another questioning sub-registrar and irrigation officials how a land close to an irrigation canal and belonging to the irrigation department was registered in the name of a private person. These were latched on to by the YSRC folks who have begun pointing out that Bonela’s apparent crusade was proof of how corrupt the TD regime was, despite Bonela’s explanation that the corruption he was targeting is a left-over from the previous regime.

When a doc predicts heart attack for a rival

Whenever GD Nellore’s TD legislator Dr V.M. Thomas sets out to corner his political rivals, he somehow ends up giving the Opposition some fresh cause to have a new go at him. Just days after creating a stir by questioning why media does not report on natural resource loot in neighbouring constituencies, which incidentally are represented by his own party MLAs, Thomas has targeted K. Narayana Swamy of the YSRC, sprinkling in his speech with predictions of heart attacks for the former deputy chief minister and so on and, adding for good measure, that if Swamy did make it to a hospital in such a condition a few electric shocks would set everything right. This left people wondering why Thomas, who runs a fertility centre and research institute, was venturing into dire cardiac predictions about his political rivals.

Contributions from Md Ilyas, Sampat G. Samritan, Pathri Rajasekhar, Aruna, K.M.P. Patnaik, Vadrevu Srinivas, Avinash P. Subramanyam