Political Diary

Prajarajyam chief Chiranjeevi and Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao are in no mood to let their guard down and take a break after the gruelling campaign unlike chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu. While the CM is cooling off in Shimla, Naidu headed off to an unknown destination in Europe. Having received information that Congress “money managers’’ are on the prowl to poach their candidates, both Chiranjeevi and KCR are on an alert and are taking steps to keep the flock together. The two leaders have reportedly started fortification measures to prevent the cash-rich Congress getting anywhere near their candidates. Though both parties are ready to join hands with the Congress if the situation warrants, it is the ‘retail purchase’ of candidates that they fear. The negotiation or bargaining should be at the party level and not at the individual level, sources of PRP and TRS said. Sources said it is the PRP which is more worried, as the party is said to have gathered information that some of its candidates have already been ‘won over’ by influential Congress candidates in several constituencies. Suspicion has fallen on some important leaders who joined the party just before the elections. For now, Chiranjeevi has no plans to detain his candidates in the office or pack them off to a summer resort. But once the results are out on May 16, a camp to keep the victorious candidates together is not ruled out. This again depends on the number of seats it would win, sources said. In the meantime, the actor-turned-politician is indulging in psychological operations to keep up the spirits of his herd. In the ongoing district-wise review meetings with candidates, Chiranjeevi is trotting out theories of silent revolution, huge turnout of women and youth, etc., and trying to convince the candidates that the party would form the government winning at least 160 seats. The scene in the TRS is different. Telangana Bhawan, the party headquarters, has turned into an impregnable fortress since the last several days. The party chief has plans to detain all the candidates in the office from May 15 onwards. The elected MLAs of the party will not be allowed to come out till the new government is formed. Sources said even the cellphone calls would be monitored. The need for such precaution in the TRS has arisen following the split engineered in the party by the Congress in the 2004 elections.