Andhra Politics - Congress ;TDP;PRP;TRS

Praja Rajyam President Dr. Chiranjeevi, yesterday started the second phase of his Yatra from Karimnagar. This being his first public meeting in the region of Telengana, it was anticipated that he would reveal the policy of his party about the separate state issue which was during since six decades.

As expected, Chiranjeevi declared his policy and said that, if the Central government proposes and advocates the separate state, his party would unconditionally support it and will not hinder the process in any way.  He has cleverly put the ball in the ruling congress court, by saying that he has no problem, if the ruling party supports Telengana.

Does this mean that he will not propose separate state, even if he comes to power in the next elections. He was very careful and never said that he would initiate the process. He only said he would support if the ruling party initiates the separation.

Every thing is set for the public meting to be addressed by Nandamuri Balakrishna(NBK) on the 5th of November at Guntur. It is almost evident that this meeting is to stand up with the other filmstar Chiranjeevi who recently launched a political party. NBK is organizing this meeting in support of Telugu Desam Party which was established by his father RamaRao.

TDP considers the success of this event prestigious and has spent millions of rupees. It is rumoured that this will be the largest public meeting ever held in the state and that this will reveal the public support that TDP and BalaKrishna enjoy. NBK is also joined by Jr.NTR and KalyanRam, the third generation film actors from the Nandamuri family.

Talking to the media, NBK said that people still love his father and the loyal to the party established by his father and that the remaining two parties in the state, Congress and PRP can only compete for the second place in the coming general elections. Balakrishna has also released the poster for his meetings.

To be out

The newly established party, Praja Rajyam Party, has announced it policy in regard to the naxalites in the state. Off late PRP has been pressurized by many people to reveal its policy on the various important issues prevailing in the state.

To this end, PRP official spokesperson yesterday convened a meeting and said that unlike the current Governement which is virtually in a war with the naxalites, PRP would try to resolve this issue amicably. He said that if PRP is elected to power, they would organize meetings discuss with the naxal leaders.

To be noted that Congress which is ruling now and TDP, the predecessor of Congress have made xactly similar statements before going to the elections and both the parties ended up in a suppressing the naxals by force. I personally feel that is the way naxals should be handled, who fight for nothing and who massacre without any reason. It is alright that PRP is trying to gain some political advantage here, but lets hope that PRP will also follow the same aggressive policy the current government is following in case it is elected to power.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy has once again backed the fears of Majlis Party, that the formation of a separate state will deteriorate the conditions of the Muslims who live in this part of the state.

Majlis party is the largest Muslim party in the state with a MP and five legislative assembly members. In the previous assembly meetings, this party has expressed its concern about the formation of the new state Telangana. They said that in the new state (if formed) it would be pretty easy for anti communal forces to suppress them as they would be losing half their strength.

Yesterday when the chief minister was asked to comment on this concern of Majlis, he to expressed the same concern an said that small states are more prone to threat form terrorists and naxals. However, he was careful not to allow the media to propagate this as his view. He immediately said that this is his personal opinion and that his party’s policy in regard to the separate state is not decided and will be decided by the party central committee.

These comments reveal the chief minister’s actual opinion about the state which he had been opposing for the past four years. Though in the recent past he is forced not to talk against the separate state by his party high command, we can still read his opinions from comments like these.

Chiranjeevi has given some indications yesterday, which implemented could turn out to be a historical decision, not just in the state but in the country.

The criteria for any party to select its contesting candidates in the elections are well known. The candidate should be well known, financially capable and should be able use to force in certain situations. Going against this general trend, Chiranjeevi has indicated yesterday in a meeting that he would let a mason contest in the next general elections on behalf of his party in the Nellore district.

Though he did not officially declare that she will be given his party ticket, Chiranjeevi made some indirect remarks.

“Munemma! Women like you should be sent to the legislative bodies. You should represent the people and solve the problems being faced by the people, about which you are talking. You should bring the change in this society and your locality. Are you willing to do that? Our party will be there to back you”

In case Chiranjeevi takes a final decision to let Munemma contest in the next elections, it would turn out to be a historical move. Chiranjeevi has been advocating the cause of empowering women and bringing a change in the current trend of politics right from the day he launched his party. This suggests that he is in fact committed to his statements and is not trying woo voters.

There were too many speculations in the media that CPM will go with TDP and that CPI will go with PRP in the next general elections. With the statements made by the district level administrations of these parties, it was very clear that the communist parties will not stay together this time.

However, Mr. Raghavulu, state secretariat of CPM yesterday has made a clear statement that the district administrations have only expressed their opinions and that will not be the final decision. He also made it very clear that both the communist parties will abide by the decision taken at the centre by their parties polit bureau. He also confirmed that under any case, both the parties will work together and that they will not form coalitions with two different parties in the state. So, it is pretty obvious that one of the two communist parties must compromise this time given their current stand.

Praja Rajyam Party has made some very serious allegations on the ruling party Congress. It said that Congress has resorted to dirty tricks to prevent their leader Chiranjeevi from completing his Yatra successfully. PRP official Parakala Prabhakar organized a press meet yesterday and made these allegations.

He said that the ruling party members have threatened their party people not to play an active role in PRP and others not to join PRP.  He also alleged that the government has misused its authority and started tapping their phone calls. He also said that the Government has obstructed the surveys being conducted by PRP to know the problems being faced by the people of the state. A few days ago, police had forcefully seized the survey reports of the PRP without citing any proper reason. PRP had to fight legally to get them back.

Mr. Parakala Prabhakar suggested the ruling party to avoid these heinous activities in the future, failing which they had to get back in the same methods. He also said that after verifying the above incidents and gathering the witness, they would file a complaint against the Congress party with the State Governor and the President of India.

To be noted that TDP also made similar allegations against the ruling party in the past. So probably these allegations are true!

After the successful completion of the first phase of his ‘Praja Ankita Yatra’, everything is set for the second phase of this Yatra. The second phase will begin on November 30th from Sirisilla and will cover 25 constituencies in the Telengana region. Chiru is expected to cover a distance of approximately 668 Kms in these eight days.

A few observations can be made from the schedule of the second phase of the Yatra.  It is known that in the first phase, Chiranjeevi faced serious health problems towards the end and had to take a long break after the Yatra to recover from the throat infection. So, instead of continuing the Yatra from the Coastal region where he stopped in the first phase, he has chosen the Telengana region. This choice is probably because the climate of Telengana is not as hot and humid as the coastal region. At the same time, Chiru also wanted to convey the message that he has the ability to travel for a long time and thus has planned a trip of eight days at a stretch unlike the first phase which was planned only for four days.

Let us wish Chiru all the best for his Yatra and hope he will get to know more about the problems faced by the people.

This is yet another blatant and shameless move by the ruling party Congress. KVP Rama Chandra Rao, a close associate of Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy was made a ‘visiting Chairman’ of an important Department in the Secretariat.

KVP is a very close friend of the Chief Minister and has a very important role in the State governance, though he was never elected by the people for any position. Just because he is close association with the CM, he was given a post in the secretariat and an office right next to the CM’s chamber. For the first three years of Congress governance, he played an active role in the state governance.

Last year he expressed his wish to be elected for the Rajya Sabha and could easily get elected within months and you know why. It is because of his relations with the Chief Minister. However, at that time he had to leave his post in the secretariat as Indian law forbids the same person from having two official posts. Thus for the last one year, he could not participate in the Secretariat activities officially.

To avoid this problem, the government has resorted to a blatant move. It has created a department and made KVP its ‘visiting chairman’, thus making it again possible for KVP to indulge officially in the Government’s activities.  The post was created in such a way that it does not violate the above mentioned Indian law. Isn’t it abominable on the part of the Government to abuse law just for the sake of getting a person into the Government?