Political Diary

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Monday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) against Sakshi TV channel owned by Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, son of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, accusing it of violating the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (regulation) Act and the model code of conduct under the Representation of the People Act.

In his complaint to EC, M. A. Shariff, TDP general secretary, alleged that the Sakshi TV channel was conducting vindictive political propaganda against TDP by telecasting damaging visuals under the guise of regular programmes that contain virulent insinuations against TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu.The TDP sought EC directions to Sakshi TV channel to stop the telecast of defamatory programmes and initiate criminal proceedings.

Coming is the hot summer and hottest election session. Hence, PRP decided to take shelter under ‘Umbrella,’ a party symbol of Sikkim Gana Parishath. PRP high command today withdrew its petitions filed in High court and in Supreme Court regarding allocating a common symbol for it.

Born, in a middle class family from a small village, Velpur in Nizamabad District, to late Sri Dharmapuri Venkataram and Smt. Dharmapuri Laxmibhai on 27th September, 1948, as the eldest son of the family Dharmapuri Srinivas spent his childhood in Velpur and in Mumbai. His father worked as an Assistant Labour Officer in a Textile Mill in Mumbai. DS attended Holy Cross School in Mumbai, until he was seven years old.

Srinivas’s initial education was at Methodist School in Hyderabad, a Christian Missionary Institution of repute. In School he was elected Minister for Cultural Affairs and Minister for Literary Affairs. In the Hostel he got elected as Minister for Social Welfare and later the Chief Minister. His skills were distinctly energized with time as the early rays of rising Sun. His Teachers could foresee a leader in him in his School days. Later he did his B.Com. in the Nizam College of Hyderabad and LL.B. in Osmania University Law College.

DS led the A.P. State team to the National Conference at Delhi, to meet the then Prime Minister, Sri Lal Bahadur Sastriji on his birthday - October 2nd and donated Rupees One Hundred Sixteen to the National Defence Fund. DS also led the group to meet the Vice President His Excellency Sri Zakir Hussainji. Though his political guru late Sri Raja Ram joined Telangana Praja Samithi, DS remained with Congress.
He also was General Secretary of Nizam College, and started nourishing the idea of contesting the Elections for Osmania University Students Union. In 1968 on December 23, DS joined Reserve Bank of India. While in service he also took active part in the Congress Party activities without any detriment to his official duties. In 1971 an excellent opportunity came his way. Congress Party decided to establish a “Student Wing” and set up an All India Steering Committee. AICC gave an opportunity to DS to be a Member of the Committee. Later, DS became the first Joint Convener of NSUI for the Andhra Pradesh State.

DS finds his biggest support and encouragement in his family. Although a dedicated congress man DS is also a committed family man too. He was married to Chi. Sow. Vijaya Lakshmi, daughter of Sri Kasiram of Korutla in Karimnagar District on 3rd February, 1972. His sons - Dharmapuri Sanjay and Dharmapuri Aravind adore him and owe all their success to the philosophy of their father and mentor.

People have been asked to put the Congress on the mat to end corruption at every level. Star campaigner for Telugu Desam N.T. Rama Rao junior, during his brief speeches at Jinnam, Gadasam, Porali and Garbham villages in Gajapathinagaram and Cheepurupalli constituencies on Monday, called upon people to recall the days in 1982-83 when they rallied behind his grandfather N.T. Rama Rao and appealed to them to repeat history.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy will contest next month’s Lok Sabha elections as a Congress party candidate from Kadapa constituency and the party has decided to field a majority of the sitting members of parliament. The Congress Central Election Committee, which finalised candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats Monday night in New Delhi, has decided to once again field all five central ministers from the state. Though a formal announcement of the candidates is likely in two days, Congress sources said the party decided to retain majority of the sitting MPs and rejected the demands of Rajya Sabha members like Mr. T. Subbirami Reddy and Mr. V. Hanumantha Rao for Lok Sabha tickets.

Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, an industrialist, will contest from Kadapa constituency in his native Kadapa district. His uncle and sitting MP Mr. Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy has decided not to contest to facilitate Jaganmohan’s entry into electoral politics. The chief minister’s son had long been eyeing this constituency. Vivekananda Reddy had decided to quit to make way for him in 2005 but the party’s leadership had shot down the proposal. Senior Congress leader and former union minister G. Venkataswamy has decided not to seek re-election, making way for his industrialist son G. Vivekanand from Pedapalli constituency.

Though Mr. Y.S.R. Reddy has this time succeeded in getting a party ticket for his son, he did not have the final say in the selection of all candidates as evident from the re-nomination of some of the sitting MPs. All India Congress Committee secretary Madhu Yaskhi Goud, who has serious differences with the chief minister, will again contest from Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat. Since some of the Lok Sabha constituencies have become non-existent due to delimitation, the party has fielded sitting MPs from newly-created constituencies.

Senior leader and central minister S. Jaipal Reddy will contest from Chevella constituency in Greater Hyderabad, as the Miryalguda seat, which he won in 2004 elections, has been scrapped. Daggubati Purandeswari, a central minister and daughter of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder N.T. Rama Rao, will contest from Visakhapatnam as her Bapatla seat has been reserved in the delimitation process. Former chief minister and sitting MP from Visakhapatnam N. Janardhan Reddy has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Another central minister Panabaka Lakshmi, whose constituency Nellore has been dereserved, will be in the fray from Bapatla.

Sources said union ministers Renuka Chowdhary and M.M. Pallam Raju have been re-nominated from Khammam and Kakinada respectively. Mr. Vundavalli Arunkumar has been retained from Rajahmundry, Mr. G.V. Harsha Kumar from Amlapuram and Mr. L. Rajagopal from Vijayawada. Anjan Kumar Yadav will again contest from Secunderabad constituency and Mr. Nizamuddin from Hindupur. Mr. Mohammed Fareeduddin, a minister in the state cabinet, has been cleared for the newly-created Zaheerabad constituency.

Mr. Manda Jagannadham, who was expelled from TDP for voting in favour of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in parliament last year, has been fielded from Nagarkurnool. Mr. A. Narendra, the expelled MP from Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), is likely to be rewarded with a ticket from Medak. G. Sukhender Reddy, who quit TDP two days ago to join Congress, may be the candidate from Nalgonda. Congress had won 29 seats in 2004 elections while its then allies TRS bagged five, Communist Party of India (CPI) one and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) one. TDP had won five seats and Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) one.The ruling party will announce candidates for assembly elections after March 23. The state is going for simultaneous polls to the state assembly and Lok Sabha April 16 and 23.

This election is very important because it is a fight between credibility and opportunism.
Five years ago, the Congress came to power making some promises to the people. We fulfilled all of them and also launched new programmes that would benefit the people. At the same time, the Telugu Desam, under the leadership of Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, scrapped all the schemes started by late Mr N.T. Rama Rao while in power and did not care about the promises made during the 1994 election campaign. Time and again Mr Naidu has displayed his apathy towards the promises made by him as well as his party.

The Rs 2 per kg rice scheme, subsidised power and prohibition were all scrapped during Mr Naidu’s nine-year regime. He never cared for either the poor or the farmers. But the Congress which came to power both at Centre and in the state took up the mission to rejuvenate the crisis-ridden agriculture sector. Though the Opposition and even Mr Naidu ridiculed us on free power, we went ahead to give Rs 3,000 crore worth of power to 26 lakh farmers. That changed everything. The rain gods also supported us.

While giving importance to agriculture, we also turned the state into an investment paradise. It has become the number two state in the country with respect to attracting investment. We also launched Arogyasri and Abhaya Hastam, two major schemes that are benefiting nearly eight crore people, though we did not promise this to them while coming to power. Therefore, we did more than we promised. We never minced words on Telangana, but only cautioned that it should be backed by the consensus.

The saffron party announced its candidates for eight Lok Sabha constituencies and 43 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh on Friday. Interestingly, the names of Mr U. Krishnam Raju and Mr Ch. Vidyasagara Rao, both ministers in the NDA regime, were not on the list. According to sources, the BJP is unsure of Mr Krishnam Raju’s plans to switch over to other parties. Though the state unit of the BJP has cleared the name of Mr Vidyasagara Rao for the Karimnagar LS seat, Mr Rao reportedly informed the party to wait for some time as he has not decided to contest from Karimnagar.

Lok Sabha seats
1. Bandaru Dattatraya from Secundrabad
2. N. Indrasena Reddy from Malkajgiri
3. K. Naresh from Hindpur
4. Baddam Bal Reddy from Chevalla.
5. Sanyasi Raju from Vijaynagaram
6. N. Vekataswamy from Tirupati (SC)
7. D.V. Subba Rao from Visakhapatnam
8. K. Bojaiah for Araku (ST).

Assembly seats
1. G. Kishan Reddy from Amberpet
2. V. Jhansi Rani from Shadnagar.
3. P. Venugopalam from Etcherla
4. P.B.S. Raju from Salur
5. P.V.V. Gopal Raju from Gajapathi Nagaram
6. S. Raghunath from Araku Valley (ST)
7. K. Raja Kumari from Visakhapatnam-East
8. P.V.N. Madhav from Visakhapatnam North
9. Solla Bojji Reddy from Rampachodavaram (ST)
10. U. Srinivasa Raju from Vijayawada Central
11. R. Lakshmipathi Rao from Bapatla
12. B. Koti Reddy from Darsi
13. Kandukuri Satyanarayana from Kavali
14 Gali Pushpalatha from Chandragiri
15. B. Shivakumar from Puthalapattu (SC)
16. Modi Thippeswamy from Rayadurg
17. S. Vishnuvardhan Reddy from Puttaparthi
18. Nagurao Namaji from Narayanpet
19. J.Raghunandhan Reddy from Nagarkurnool
20. T. Achari from Kalwakurthy
21. S. Malla Reddy from Quthbullapur
22. P. Narasimha Reddy from Ibrahimpatnam
23. Sheri Narsing Rao from Vikarabad (SC)
24. K. Sathyanarayana from Patancheru
25. A. Srinivas from Armoor
26. V. Muralidhar Goud from Kamareddy
27. Y. Lakshminarayana from Nizamabad Urban
28. Kotna Leela Shiva from Nizamabad Rural
29. Sateesh from Mudhole
30. S. Kumar from Dharmapuri (SC)
31. G. Rama Krishna Reddy from Paddapalle
32. P. Sugunakar Rao from Karimnagar
33. Y. Chandrasekhar Rao from Sircilla
34. N. Narasimha Rao from Jangaon
35. C. Janga Reddy from Bhupalpalle
36. M. Dharma Rao from Warangal West
37. Kondapally Sridhar Reddy from Palair
38. N.V.S.S. Prabhakar from Uppal
39. M. Bheem Rao from Serilingampally
40. Dr K. Laxman from Musheerabad
41. G.R. Karunakar from Malakpet
42. C. Ramchandra Reddy from Khairathabad
43. Premsing Rathore from Goshamahal

Creation of AP State Agricultural Development Authority, 12-hour free power to farmers during the day, a one-time debt relief on farm loans not waived in 2008 and setting up a Rs.1,000-crore price stabilisation fund are among the proposals in the Telugu Desam’s draft agriculture policy to be included in its manifesto. Releasing the draft here on Sunday, party president N. Chandrababu Naidu said the authority, to be headed by the Chief Minister, would adopt a modern and holistic approach to render agriculture profitable by ensuring higher productivity at lesser cost. The MSP would be in accordance with the M. S. Swaminathan committee’s recommendations.
Special incentives

The authority would offer special incentives to promote agriculture-based industries in villages, set up cold storage chains to curb post-harvest losses. It would prepare soil health cards to increase productivity. Small and marginal farmers would be given interest-free loans up to Rs. 25,000.Big ryots would be given loans at three per cent interest. A tripartite agreement among private seed company, government and farmer would be revived.

The other initiatives include establishment of a State commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, providing insurance cover for motors used by farmers (the government will meet the cost of repairs and replacement), a 75 per cent subsidy on modern farm implements, abolition of MV Tax on tractors, trailers and harvesters and 90 per cent subsidy on drip irrigation.

Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi announced that the party would launch its election battle after holding ‘Praja Vijaya Bheri’, a public meeting at the Parade Grounds here on March 21. This is the third such planned mega-show after the Tirupati meeting on August 26 and ‘Samajika Nyaya Sankharavam’, at Rajahmundry for the backward classes, touted as a meeting to declare the party’s commitment to social justice.

The March 21 meeting here was initially christened ‘Ennikala Sankharavam’, the launch pad for the party’s election campaign. Interacting with presspersons before a meeting of the party’s district convenors and joint convenors on Sunday, he made it clear that the Praja Rajyam would pull out all the stops and show its strength. Party leaders estimate a gathering in excess of 10 lakh.

Cine actor N. Balakrishna has promised fishermen that the TDP, if elected to power, will provide them a dole of Rs. 700 per month during lean season and supply 100 kg rice, petrol and diesel on subsidy. On the fourth day of his tour in Prakasam district, the actor travelled through the coastal villages in Kothapatnam mandal on Sunday. He promised three cents of land for cultivation to handloom weavers of Eethamukkala village besides a house site and financial assistance of Rs. 1.25 lakh for house construction. He also promised yarn and colours on subsidy to them. They would also be provided free power.

He promised to bring salt industry under the agricultural sector to help it get soft loans. Saying that the TDP government would provide colour television sets free of cost to poor people, he exhorted them to use them not only for their entertainment but also enrich the knowledge of their children. Earlier, Mr. Balakrishna got down from his vehicle to interact with Bengal gram farmers at Surareddypalem. The farmers alleged that Agriculture Minister Raghuveera Reddy had colluded with a private agency to deny remunerative price to them.

Mr. Balakrishna came down heavily on the Congress government accusing it of taking away valuable lands of farmers for Special Economic Zones. The TDP government had wanted to develop coastal areas into tourism spots but the Congress government handed over lands to corporate sector, he alleged.

getting ready for the road shows from a make-shift night halt camp. She was anguished that he was moving around in the sun. The star campaigner revealed this at a road show and said that he tried to calm down his mother that he was overjoyed by the affection shown by the crowds everywhere ignoring the hot sun and urged her not to worry.