Political Diary

Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat today had a detailed discussion with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu on various ’burning issues’ to be raised during the Winter Session of the Parliament beginning tomorrow.

After their meeting at the TDP Supremo’s residence, Mr Naidu told reporters that they decided to raise the issue of alleged illegal mining in Anantapur district by the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), promoted by Karnataka Tourism Minister G Janardhan Reddy.

Both the leaders discussed to work in unison in Parliament and raise major issues concerning the people, including price rise.

Mr Naidu said the two parties had decided to press for withdrawal of the recently promulgated ordinance which required the State Government to bear the expenses if it fixed sugarcane prices lower than advised by the Centre.

The ordinance would hit hard the sugarcane farmers, Mr Naidu claimed

With barely a week left for GHMC poll D-Day, the Congress on Monday decided to give a collective push to the campaign and impress upon the electorate that it too is in the fray.

With the absence of a star campaigner reflecting strongly in its campaign so far, CM K Rosaiah marshalled together all leaders and ministers and practically made each one of them in-charge of a few divisions. He also asked them to bury their differences and concentrate on the poll campaigning.

Congress appeared to have woken up to the reality of its campaigning suddenly on Monday. AICC secretaries Praveen Davar, B S Krishnamurthy, deputed by the high command for the polls, convened a breakfast meet of all ministers at a hotel on Raj Bhavan road and took stock of the situation.

The matter was then discussed informally after the cabinet meet in the afternoon. Sources said Rosaiah virtually accepted the contention that the Congress campaign was going nowhere due to lack of coordination. Top party leaders including D Nagender, PCC president D Srinivas, Rajya Sabha MP K V P Ramachandra Rao, and all the ministers later met at the CM’s Ameerpet residence to discuss the situation.

According to sources, the ministers and leaders were told to aggressively campaign in the wards allotted to them. "They were told to undertake padayatras during the day and hold public meetings in the evening for the next few days," sources said.

Secretaries and joint secretaries of the state Congress were told to campaign in the wards and individual summons were sent to them to report to work immediately, sources said. Apparently, the message given by the AICC representatives was that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was monitoring the efforts of all the leaders closely.

"This has immediately galvanised the CM, PCC chief and KVP into closing the ranks and putting a united effort as a poor showing will reflect on all of them," the source added.

Demanding CBI investigation into alleged illegal iron ore mining owned by Karnataka Tourism Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy at Obulapuram in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party(TDP), CPI and CPI(M) today resorted to agitation in four districts of Rayalaseema today.

Police said at Chittoor, as many as 150 activists belonging to TDP and Left parties had staged dharna in front of the District Collectorate office before submitting a memorandum to the District Collector, Seshadri. They also staged dharna at Tirupati.

The leaders demanded the Government to conduct a CBI enquiry into the mining and initiate measures to stop mining at Obulapuram, besides attaching mining at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP).

At Kadapa district, as many as 150 party workers of the TDP and Left parties staged road-roko and dharna at Bedval and Mydukur.

In Ananatapur district, tension prevailed for sometime when the party workers got agitated over obstruction by the police at Tadiparthi village while they were staging road-roko. They also staged protests at Nellore and detained some iron ore loaded lorries.

As a precautionary measure, security had been tightened at all Collectorate and Revenue Divisional offices in Rayalaseema districts.

The Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Sunday said the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, was in touch with him during the recent political crisis.

The TD chief revealed that Mr Yeddyurappa spoke to him at length about the crisis and how he was being troubled by a politician hailing from Andhra Pradesh. Mr Naidu was speaking during his meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, along with leaders from other Opposition parties on the Obulapuram Mining Corporation controversy.

The TD president, however, did not reveal whether the purpose of Karnataka Chief Minister’s call was to seek assistance in tackling the crisis or just to find solace.

Significantly, the TD’s revival of the campaign against OMC coincided with the Karnataka crisis.

Mr Naidu told the Chief Minister that he had suggested to Mr Yeddyurappa it was better to quit the post rather than succumbing to pressure. "I told him that crying openly in public will bring disrepute to the post," Mr Naidu said.

The TD president also complained to the Chief Minister that a person from the AO could grow to a level wherein he made a Chief Minister of the state cry. The TD MLA, Mr A. Revanth Reddy, prompted Mr Naidu that Mr Yeddyurappa cried twice.

The senior TD leader, Mr Nagam Janardhan Reddy, explained the technical issues involved in the OMC row. He went on to give details since 1960 and with the help of maps he tried to establish encroachments. However, Mr Janardhan Reddy was not seen at the media point with Mr Naidu, Mr B.V. Raghavulu and Mr K. Narayana.

Leading industrialist Chalamalasetti Sunil today brushed aside the reports about him quitting Prajarajyam Party (PRP) and joining Telugu Desam.

He informed the mediapersons present here that the reports were baseless, politically motivated and circulated by interested parties.

He further said he was very much dedicated to the PRP and personally attached to party leader Chiranjivi.

He said, ’’In fact recently, during the internal meetings, I requested Mr Chiranjivi to concentrate on party revitalizing by constituting various committees at the grassroot level.’’ Hence the question of my leaving the party did not arise and there is not even an iota of truth in the reports, he asserted.

At any cost few District Party Chiefs are going ahead with the membership drive. Rival groups demands the suspension of the drive as the leadership issue has to be settlled in favour of YS Jagan.

In Rajahmundry, they demanded that all Congress MPs and MLAs resign from their posts in protest against the high command’s dilly dallying over making Jagan the CM. This led to a showdown with Amalapuram MP Harsh Kumar when, speaking to the media, he said that all the state ministers and MLAs who had threatened to quit if Jagan was not made the CM should lead from the front by resigning.

By Friday evening, Youth Congress leaders in many districts said the membership drive would not be allowed until the leadership issue was settled. But some others vowed to go ahead with it. “The drive will not be stopped as it is being done on the directive of the AICC,” said Mahbubnagar DCC chief S Prakash, a statement that was seconded by Warangal district party chief D Venkataramana Reddy.

Srikakulam district chief K Veerabhadraswamy could not make up his mind. “We have yet to decide whether to carry on with the drive or postpone it,” he said. But Friday made it clear that the state Congress is being divided into YSR followers on the one side and high command loyalists on the other.

Communist Party of India (CPI) national executive member K Narayana today demanded the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh to immediately release water from Srisailam reservoir into Nagarjunasagar dam to irrigate 22 lakh acres of Nagarjunasagar ayacut in the rabi season.
Addressing a press conference here, he said due to scanty rainfall and insufficient water in the Nagarjunasagar reservoir, the crops in Khammam, Nalgonda, Guntur and Krishna districts, under which the ayacut comes, had withered away.
He said the state government should take immediate steps in view of the the Rabi season, for releasing water from Srisailam reservoir which in full.
Mr Naryana, who is also CPI state unit secretary, said the state government should release the ’dead storage’ water from the reservoir.
Refuting the claim of Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmiah that water was released to Nagarjunasagar ayacut, Mr Narayana said the party had passed a resoultion in the executive meeting over the issue.

Dr Rao, who is also a member of the Rajya Sabha, functions as the advisor to the government from his office situated on the ground floor of ‘D’ block. The office of the Chief Minister, Mr K Rosaiah, is on the second floor of the same block.

Dr Rao’s presence is expected to be reassuring to the Congress leaders. However, the effect on the functioning of officials is still to be seen.

Whether Dr Rao will share the same chemistry with the current Chief Minister as he used to share with Rajasekhar Reddy is yet to be seen.

Is the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) still facing some internal problems? The answer appears to be yes, going by the the statement made by TRS Mancherial MLA Arvind Reddy who has, once again, raised his voice against the party leadership.

Participating in the ``Hyderabad Liberation Day’’ discussion programme on a TV channel from Mancherial, Arvind Reddy said it was high time the TRS changed itself from a political party to an organisation that could launch people’s movements.

``The TRS, which once won 26 Assembly seats and 5 Lok Sabha seats previously, could manage only 10 seats in the recent elections and, if it did not mend its ways, would not even manage five,’’ he said.

Reddy said that for his part he would throw his weight behind efforts to change party policies. Dismissing allegations that he was planning to sail with the Congress, he said he was committed to the TRS.

Arvind Reddy’s comments on the party come at a time when the TRS leadership is happy that another TRS rebel leader and Medak MP Vijayashanti is involved in a scam. After the general elections, Arvind Reddy had met the then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, raising suspicions that he was gravitating towards the Congress camp.

Also, the TRS MLA had cancelled party president K Chandrasekahara Rao’s `Palle Bata’ programme in his constituency last month saying he was ``not well’’.

Tekkali MLA Korla Bharathi visits YS Jagan and extended her support today. She came to Hyderabad today and met with YS Jagan, she is yet to meet PCC chief D.Srinivas and chief minister K.Rosaiah. The state Congress Party is making rounds around YS Jagan and most of the MLAs and MPs are still loyal to YS Jagan even though Congress high command does not give any favourable signs to install YS Jagan in chief minister seat.
Congress leaders strongly believe that their loyalty to YSR family would bring them victory in next election also. It is be noted that they also have hints that YS Jagan would be riding the party during 2014 elections and his blessings are mandatory for getting seat and also winning the election.
We need to wait and see how long chief minister K.Rosaiah and Congress high command accept the domination of YS Jagan in state politics.

The congress party high command may have appointed Rosaiah as the chief minister following the death of YSR but as far as many state leaders are concerned, the real chief minister is YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The ministers, MLAs and party leaders are not giving the respect that is due to Rosaiah as CM. They are all calling on Jagan and taking orders from him. The open defiance of Rosaiah and the open support to Jagan is causing a lot of discomfort to the incumbent CM.
Jagan is acting like the CM. It is not exactly to the liking of the high command but it is watching the situation silently. The ministers and MLAs have been warned not to ignore Rosaiah but they have so far defied the diktat of the high command.