Andhra Politics - Congress ;TDP;PRP;TRS

President of Praja Rajyam Youth Wing, Pawan Kalyan has delivered his first public political speech yesterday and made extremely severe allegations on the leaders of the ruling party. Unlike his brother Chiranjeevi, Pawan chose to make cutting remarks on the ruling party and made allegations on each and every leader in Congress by name. This is the first time that any one from PRP has accused the ruling party and it appears to be a strategical move by PRP to use Pawan to attack other parties and keep the President Chiranjeevi aloof.

However, these severe comments by Pawan attracted a huge protest from the Congress youth wing. Around 40 members from Congress gathered at PRP office to demonstrate their protest against Pawan’s comments. They have decided to go in the Gandhian way of protesting by giving flowers to Pawan and indeed brought flowers along with them. However, the scene changed after they reached PRP office and the two groups (PRP and Congress) had a clash. Finally the Police had to come into the scene to control the mob and sent the Congress members away from PRP office.

Pawan talking later, said that he has the right to make allegations and asked the Congress to freely demonstrate their protest in public places. He said that the Congress should not have come to their party office which can be considered an attack on their office.

In a country with close to 40% illiterates, voting symbol is very important for the political parties to reach the public. Unfortunately the newly established party, Praja Rajyam is facing a problem in this respect. This party is not yet assigned an election symbol by the Election Commission of India and with the elections impending in a few months, the party is trying hard to get a symbol. In case the party does not get a symbol, the contestants must use a random symbol allocated bu the EC and the party will just be having 14days to publicize this symbol.

SO, the party officials have met the Election Comminssion yesterday to discuss the matter. PRP is just a registered party and not a recognized party by the Election Commission and thus the EC need not give this party a symbol. A party gets recognized only after it exhibits its public support by participating in at least one election. However, there is not rule that forbids the EC from allocating a symbol to non-recognized parties. PRP wants the EC to use this power and allott a symbol. In 2004, the EC has assigned the ‘car’ symbol to TRS which was then a non-recognized party. On similar lines, PRP wants EC to allott a symbol and is hoping a favorable response from the EC. In case the EC denies to allott asymbol, PRP is planning to approach the Supreme Court.

In response to a petition filed against the road shows organized by political parties, the High court of Andhra Pradesh issued a stay order on the road shows last month. The petition was filed after a few people died in the stampede in Praja Rajyam’s road shows. The court was serious about the negligence of the political parties and ordered them not to organize any road shows.

The parties have chosen other means of approaching people and started organizing public meetings in various districts. However, the parties continued their deliberations with the court and finally with the intervention fo the DGP of Andhra, the court has decided to release the stay orders and let the parties continue with their road shows.

The  Police Department has submitted some directives for organizing the road shows and the court was satisfied by these directives. The court said that the parties can organize road shows following the directives given by the Police Department and said that the Police will be responsible for ensuring that the Road Shows follow these directives. The court also allowed the parties to file a petition, if they find any of the directives infeasible.

So, now the parties in the state will be back on roads obstructing the traffic and daily lives of people. The life of stay orders is most advantageous for PRP which had been actively organizing road shows before the stay orders were issued.

Chief Minister Raja Sekhar Reddy and PCC chief Srinivas share a very bitter relationship but always appear to be very cordial for the sake of the party. However, time and again, their ‘real’ relationship becomes apparent and the Human Chain program organized by Congress made this clear once again.

 Chief Minister never wanted Srinivas to head the PCC and had tried severely to convince the high-command. Unfortunately Sonia Gandhi decided otherwise and since then, YSR and DSS had to act as if they are in a very good relation. Yesterday DSS planned for and organized a human chain program in which the members of Congress all over the state will form a human chain in their regions as a sign of unity among Congress.

However, as this is planned by DSS, the chief minister did not show much interest and obviously the turnout was very poor. The program was not successful and there barely any people forming a chain. In Hyderabad, both DSS and YSR participated in the human chain and even here, the program went was without much activity. It was very clear that YSR was not interested and people could observe that there wasn’t much interaction among the two leaders. Though they shared stage for a couple of hours, they barely looked or talked to each other. You can see the photo!

After Megastar Chiranjeevi established a political party in the state, the remaining parties have started their trials to get some film actors into their parties to counter Chiranjeevi’s cine glamor. Chandra Babu has already succeeded in roping all the Nandamuri heroes into his party and could succeed in containing the migrations from TDP to Chiranjeevi’s party. Next in the queue was the ruling party, Congress.

Veteran actor Krishna had been in the Congress party for long. However, he doesn’t have the charisma to attract people and this Congress tried to get his son Mahesh Babu into politics. Mahesh is the most successful actor among the young actors in the state and commands a huge following and so was the choice of Congress.

However, it is being reported that Mahesh is not at all interested in getting into politics, in spite of his father’s request. He considers himself too young for politics and wants to concentrate on his film career. His uncle Adi Seshagiri Rao talked to the media yesterday and declared that Mahesh will not participate in the campaign for congress.

Jr. NTR is fighting against his own father, Nandamuri Hari Krishna, thanks to the changing political scenario in the state. After popular actor Chiranjeevi established a poitical party, Chandrababu Naidu has roped in the Nandamuri film actors into TDP to counter the cine glamor of Chiranjeevi. But now these actors are causing more problems to the party instead of helping the party.

The problem started with Gannavaram Assembly seat. Jr. NTR wanted Chandrababu to give the ticket of Gannavaram to his close associate Vamsi Mohan. Jr NTR’s father, Hari Krishna wants the same seat to be given to Ex-MLA Balavardhana Rao. The determination of NTR and Hari Krishan has created serious problems to Chandrababu as he will have to choose one of them. Some believe that the absence of NTR in the recent ‘Yuvagarjana’ can be attributed to this conflict.

How would Chandrababu resolve this conflict? He can’t afford to lose either of them. I believe that if he had to choose, Chandrababu would go for Jr. NTR.

No one would have ever imagined that this question would arise in the first place. Unlike other parties, Telugu Desam was always clear about the Chief Minister candidate of their party - ChadraBabu Naidu. However, the recent comments by the leaders from the Nandamuri family has given rise to a bit of confusion within TDP.

After Chirajeevi established his own party, TDP had immediately brought the Nandamuri film heroes into scene to counter the cine glamor of Chiranjeevi’s party. In the initial days, this worked out well and TDP appeared to be strengthened by the five (cine) heroes from Nandamuri family. Unfortunately, now this has led to a confusion in the party, because of the recent comments by Balakrishna that he is also a potential candidate for Chief Minister in case TDP wins the next elections.

Some feel that Balakrishna made these commnets as he couldn’t fore see the consequences and that his intention was only to entertain his fans. Others feel that these comments were intentional. Anyway, TDP has taken steps to contain the damage being caused by these comments and Balakrishna yesterday clarified that Chandrababu will be the next CM if TDP wins.

So everything is fine as of now.

PRP, after giving up on the road shows because of the stay order by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, has embarked into public meetings in various districts. First in the row was Nalgonda and to everyone’s surprise the public turnout was very disappointing to the PRP leaders. There were hardly any people (when compared to the previous roadshows) and it was reported that the PRP leaders were shocked to see such a scenario, the first time after their party was established.

The leaders of the party immediately convened an unofficial meeting to discuss why this happened, but could not get to any decisive answer. They tried to pacify themselves that the lack of public response is because of improper publicity and bad weather. However, a few leaders agreed that public is quickly losing interest in this party which solely banked on the charisma of the party president, Dr. Chiranjeevi.

PRP had always been uttering the word ‘change’ but couldn’t release their manifesto till date. They were no clear policies in the party which created a rather ‘timid’ image among the people. Its high time that the PRP leadership gets into the public with clear policies and manifesto instead of trying to play safe by simple using the word ‘change’. People got to know what the ‘change’ you will bring, if they are to vote you to power.

Nandamuri Balakrishna made an interesting statement yesterday, that if the people of the state wish to see him as the chief minister, he might be the next CM. Balaiah is in Rajahmundry on a shooting schedule of his next cinema and talked to the journalists on the political matters.

When asked if he is a potential candidate for the CM, he said it might be possible if people wish so. He said that Chandra Babu might have to look after the central politics after the next elections and in that case he would take care at the state level (and thus CM). Balaiah! You should realize the Chandra Babu will spare no one (not even you) if you try to compete for the chief minister chair.

Balaiah also talked about his sister who is currently in the congress party. He asked her to come back to the Telugu Desam party as the entire family has now got closer to TDP, founded by their father. He went on saying that if Purandhareswari decided to stay back in Congress and if TDP administration orders him to, he might contest against her in the next elections. This would be very interesting to see brother and sister competing for the same seat from two rival parties.

When Chandra Babu was asked to respond to Bala Krishna’s comments, he simply skipped the question.

Nandamuri Balakrishna and Nara Chandra Babu have met in Babu’s residence here in Hyderabad to decide upon Balakrishna’s schedule over the next few months. The two leaders have discussed for about one hour on various issues, of course all related to politics. In this meeting it was decided that Balakrishna will officially participate in the party campaigning from the fourth week of January.

Balakrishna will be leaving to Rajahmundry today and will stay there for his film shooting till the 30th of December. He will then come back to Hyderabad and once again leave to Rajahmundry for another 15days to complete the shooting of his movie. So, he will be free in the fourth week of January and from then he will completely devote his time to the party till the general elections.

Chandra Babu suggested Balaiah to take off some time from the shooting at Rajahmundry and interact with the local leaders to instill confidence in them, to which Balaiah readily agreed and said that he would try to meet the local people in the Godavari districts when ever he finds some time during his shooting schedule.