Political Diary

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.