Political Diary

Briefing the media after a three-hour long politburo meeting, party general secretary Kadiam Srihari and leader of the opposition in the legislative council D Veerabhadra Rao said the Congress party would not hesitate to pump in any amount of money to try and come back to power. "Hence, to counter it, the TDP politburo is appealing to all its supporters to donate liberally to the party fund. It had received Rs 5 lakh donation in the last one month but a lot more needs to flow in," he said.

The politburo also demanded that the state election commission to prepare a list of officials, who are not following the poll code and replace them with officials from other states if need be.

The TDP alleged that the district officials were not implementing the poll code effectively. Veerabhadra Rao said that revenue minister K Ramakrishna was still laying foundation stones and inaugurating buildings in Visakhapatnam district. When the TDP tried to contact the returning officers, they were not available and instead the party was told to leave their complaint with the MROs. In view of this, Rao said the CEO should punish the officials who are still working as "agents of the government," and replace them with efficient officials from outside state if need be.

The politburo also discussed the hurdles being faced in the process of seat sharing and appealed to the alliance partners not to announce individual lists lest it may add to confusion. He however denied that the Mahagarjana (public rally) scheduled to be held on March 9 at the Parade Grounds has been cancelled because of the failure of the alliance partners to arrive at an understanding on seat sharing.

Srihari said they were law-abiding parties unlike the ruling party. "We don’t want the local candidate to suffer on any account," he said. It would require huge resources to organise the meeting since the time available was too short and even it manages to make arrangements, the entire expenditure could be counted as local candidate’s expenditure. To avoid such complications and also in view of the fact that the alliance partners are participating in the rally being organised by former prime minister Dewe Gowda on March 12 at Benguluru, they felt that the Hyderabad rally be cancelled.

Surprisingly, the Chief Minister, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy’s pet programme Jalayagnam (construction of irrigation projects) is not on the priority list of achievements that the Congress plans to play up in the coming polls.

The committee, which has been entrusted to generate publicity materials for the party, has decided to showcase only voter-specific issues.A survey report indicated that Jalayagnam, the massive development scheme taken up by the government with an overall investment of about Rs 1.50 lakh crore to bring one crore acres under assured irrigation facility, has not gone down well among the people as was expected by the government.

The survey report was placed before the Chief Minister and on his instructions the publicity committee has shifted its priorities to all the welfare schemes which are intended to benefit individuals.

The schemes include Arogyasri (health insurance) Abhaya Hastam (pension scheme) Indiramma housing, Pavala Vaddi (loans at 25 paisa interest) free power, reimbursement of tuition fee to minority students, BCs and EBCs and the Rs-2-a-kg rice scheme which are more attractive to voters and will fetch votes for the party in the elections.Positive publicity material, which is allowed by the Election Commission, will go on the air soon after the three-member screening committee of the Election Commission put its seal of certification.

Meanwhile, the Congress is starting its SMS poll campaign from Thursday. The party hopes to use this as a platform to inform people about its schemes and policies over the last five years.

The state government has announced the terms of reference for the Joint Committee constituted to deliberate on the issue of formation of Telangana under the Chairmanship of State Finance Minister K Rosaiah.The Committee will work to identify the economic issues that propel Telangana sentiment and to examine the facts relating to employment, exploitation of resources, among others, and to examine the concerns of minorities in the proposd Telangana set up, state government sources said yesterday.

The status of Hyderabad Metropolitan area was also BF examined taking into consideration the migrant population, their concerns in the rest of Telangana (excluding Hyderabad) and to examine the issues relatig to Maoist and Terrorist activities in the context of proposed Telangana set up.

The Committee will work out the modalities for sharing of river water vis-a-vis the existing situation, infrastructure and service facilities at state capital - both state and central governments - elocation and consequential issues, to examine issues pertaining to existing demands for separate states by other regions of the state.It will also work out a strategy for the over all ad harmonious development of all regions in the event of formation of Telangana state.

The Telugu Desam Party is proposing to include in its election manifesto, a novel healthcare scheme for the poor that could be named after the party’s founder, N. T. Rama Rao.The scheme will do away with the “exploitative” provisions of the State government’s ongoing Rajiv Arogyasri programme that served to augment the corporate hospitals in the State to the utter neglect of the government hospitals, according to a senior Telugu Desam leader and member of the manifesto committee.
Wary of comparison

The committee met on Tuesday but is wary of comparing the scheme with the one named after Rajiv Gandhi.He said the Telugu Desam Party’s scheme modelled after a pilot project in Karimnagar district would strike a balance, ensuring that the poor get the best of healthcare even while strengthening the government hospitals.Several other unique schemes would be unfolded in the manifesto likely to be released on March 10.
Non-political panel

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, has urged the TRS(N) leader and MP, Mr A. Narendra, to join the Congress so that he could be fielded against the TRS chief, Mr K. Chandr-asekhar Rao, in Medak.This suggestion came up when Mr Narendra met Dr Reddy on Tuesday morning at the latter’s camp office to seek Congress support for his candidature in the Medak Lok Sabha segment.

As such, there are no formidable leaders from the Congress to take on Mr Chandrasekhar Rao, who is shifting from Karimnagar to try his luck at Medak. Sources said the Chief Minister pointed out that Mr Narendra could be fielded as a prominent BC leader if he joined the Congress.There was a long line-up of ticket seekers from the Congress at the camp office of the Chief Minister where he was closeted with his aide, Dr K.V.P. Ramacha-ndra Rao.

Though the Chief Minister has finalised the list of candidates, the flow of aspirant candidates is likely to continue till March 8 — the day the AICC screening committee will meet at Delhi and discuss the candidates’ list. Before that, the 11-member Pradesh Election Committee will meet on Wednesday in the presence of the AP Congress Affairs in-charge, Mr Veerappa Moily. Among those who met the Chief Minister on Tuesday were the actor-turned-politician Mr Satyanarayana. The wife of the late P. Janardhan Reddy also met the Chief Minister along with her daughter and son, the Khairatabad MLA, Mr Vishnuvardhan Reddy, and sought one more party ticket. Several ministers, MLAs MPs and senior leaders of the party met the Chief Minister to seek tickets. Later, they met the PCC chief, Mr D. Srinivas, also to seek his blessings.

The Praja Rajyam (PR) leadership has landed in a piquant situation as the EC has declined to reconsider the party’s request for allotment of a common symbol for the forthcoming elections to Assembly and Lok Sabha.

The PR is now exploring various options including sharing the election symbol of national party or a regional party of other States. But this may prove disastrous as it would “lose its identity” and would be forced to fight in the name of the party that agrees to give its symbol. Moreover, it would be forced to toe the line of the party which shares its symbol after the elections.

Senior PR leaders were unwilling to react to the development or as to what the party’s next course would be. The general refrain is “PR president Chiranjeevi has made his mark and the people are intelligent enough to recognise PR’s candidates irrespective of the symbol”.

When contacted, legal expert and PR’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) member P. Shivshankar said they were studying the provisions of the X Schedule of the Constitution that dealt with instances relating to breaking up of two parties after contesting the elections together on a common symbol. Mr. Shivshankar said a concrete decision on moving the Supreme Court was yet to be taken.

The Election Commission has once again rejected the appeal of Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam for a common symbol for the elections.Sources said a six-page letter explaining the reasons for the rej-ection had be-en sent to the Chief Electi-on Offi-cer in Hydera-bad to be forwarded to the party. EC officials refu-sed to comment.The EC has said only recognised political parties are eligible for a permanent symbol while registered parties will have to choose from the ”free symbols” available.

In Hyderabad, the Praja Rajyam spokesperson, Mr Parakala Prabhakar said the party would move the Supreme Court for the symbol. He said, however, that the party had not received the communication from the Election Commission.There is no proposal to approach any party for its symbol. “We know it cannot be done. It was a crazy idea floated by someone, we are not responsible for that,” he said.

Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi on Monday said that the first list of the contesting candidates of his party in the ensuing election would be announced by March 10.Speaking to media persons at Achampet town in the district, he said there was no confusion about the selection of candidates.He said in fact he wanted to make public the first list on March 1 or 2 itself, but due to some unavoidable circumstances it was getting delayed.He brushed aside the news that only his relatives and family members have a say in deciding candidates to be fielded in the election.

“We are following all democratic norms in selecting the candidates. We have asked the district conveners of our party to submit the list of candidates who were aspiring to contest the elections from their respective constituencies and subsequently they will be short listed,” he said.Mr. Chiranjeevi said there was a chance to appeal to the Chief Election Commission once again on the issue of common symbol to his party in coming elections.Mr. Chiranjeevi said his government would pass resolutions in the State Assembly on creation of Telangana State and categorisation of SCs in the event of his party coming to power.
MRPS row

He said the Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy government should take the responsibility for the present agitation undertaken by MRPS.This government had created hopes among the Madiga community on categorisation but deceived them.The PR chief said his party would ensure categorisation of SCs as a part of social justice.Referring to the comments of CPI (M) State secretary B.V.Raghavalu that if Mr. Chiranjeevi was serious about defeating the Congress, he should join the Mahakutami, the actor-turned politician said asking him to join the Mahakutami proved that they were weak.
Fourth frontHe said efforts were on with regard to formation of fourth front.

“Where is Praja Rajyam” asked Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu and claimed that the main fight in Andhra Pradesh was between his party and the Congress for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Welcoming the two-phase polling announced by the Election Commission, he said the countdown had begun for the defeat of the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in the State. He forecast that the Grand Alliance would come to power in the State, while the Third Front would form the government at the Centre. Pointing out the model code of conduct came into force with the announcement of the poll schedule, he accused the Centre and the State Government of having misused power by issuing numerous advertisements in the recent past.
Blasts A.P. government

Lashing out at the YSR government, he said as many as 5,000 GOs were issued in a month. In some cases, conditional GOs were issued on lands which were in dispute and the matter was sub-judice. On seat-sharing with the Left and the TRS, he said the process would be finalised in couple of days.On the Third Front, he said the leaders of Left and other parties would be attending a meeting at Bangalore on March 12 on the invitation of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda. It would be followed by similar meeting at Hyderabad. AIADMK and BSP were part of the front, he added.

Nearly two-thirds of the voters in Krishna district will have to exercise their franchise in favour of a new face to represent them in the State Legislative Assembly in the elections that are going to be held on April 23.The total number of Assembly constituencies in the district has come down by one to 16 after delimitation. Malleswaram, Mudinenapalli, Kankipadu and Vuyyuru have been either reorganised into smaller constituencies or absorbed into neighbouring segments.
Familiar ones

Only the voters of Kaikaluru, Jaggayyapeta, Machilipatnam, Nuzvid, Gannavaram and Avanigadda are likely to see the sitting MLAs in the electoral race.Voters of the newly formed constituencies – Penamaluru, Pamarru, Vijayawada Central (Satyanarayanapuram) and Pedana – who do not have a sitting MLA will have to settle for a new face.Kankipadu, the second largest Assembly constituency in the State, has been cut into three pieces, conceding large portions of its area to Vijayawada East (Patamata).

Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru), who has been elected from Kankipadu constituency four times, will be familiar to the voters of Vijayawada East that is a piece of his old constituency.Mr. Rajasekhar is being seen as a sure candidate of the Congress for the new constituency.The voters of Nandigama may be disappointed as their sitting MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao will not be in the race from there because the constituency has been reserved for the scheduled castes.