Andhra Politics - Congress ;TDP;PRP;TRS

State Congress party which had been deliberating over the separate Telangana issue had final come out with a firm stand. The party opined that there is no need splitting the state and that balance can be stroked between the two regions of the state with proper planning.

Congress has come to power in 2004 elections by promising a separate state for Telangana but changed its word immediately after the elections. Though, they never denied the separate state possibility, they had playing ‘delay tactics’ and ruled the state for four and half years without giving a clear policy stand. Now that the next elections are impending in a few months, Congress finally broke the ice by declaring that they are not in favour of separate state and that the development activities they have undertaken in Telangana region will earn them their votes in the next elections.

Let us see how people will react to this bold move.

There is a great battle going on in the state Congress party and the venue is the capital city of the country, New Delhi. Two groups from the Congress party each with their own stand on the Telangana issue were invited by the party high command to discuss over the issue and arrive at a final decision.

Cheif Minister Rajasekhar Reddy and PCC chief D. Srinivas are the leaders of the groups with these opposing policy standings. Rajasekhar Reddy believes that there is no necessity for the party to make an announcement in favor of separate state and that the developmental activities in the region under his reign are enough to attract the people. D. Srinivas on the other hand, firmly believes that the people are dying for a separate state and that Congress will have to pay heavily if it does not take a favorable decision for Telangana.

So, this dispute has finally reached New Delhi and both the leaders are asked to appear at the high command and discuss over the issue and it is expected that a decision will be delivered tomorrow. Most likely, Rajasekhar Reddy will be the winner!

After years of deliberation, the Congress party has finally realized the potential losses it would suffer if it goes for the coming general elections alone. With opposition leader Chandra Babu forming a ‘Great Allinance’ in the state, Congress realized that it cannot sustain the upcoming elections without coalating with TRS party. As TRS leader Chandra Sekhar Rao did not yet declare that he would work with TDP, Congress is trying hard to attract him towards his party.

Right from the year 2004 in which Congress got into power at the state and the central level, TRS has been appealing for the formation of a separta state Telanagana. However, Congress never really considered this a big issue and kept neglecting TRS, even when TRS resigned from the Government. However, now that the elections are impending in a few months and TDP getting stronger day by day, Congress has realized the need to take quick steps in favor of Telangana before the elections.

The president of National Congress Ms. Sonia Gandhi has prepared the grounds in favor of Telanga and it was reported that the party would pass a bill for separate Telangana in the coming budget session of the Parliament to be held in the first week of February. This can be seen as a strategic move by Congress to take away all the credit for separata Telangana before the elections and this force TRS to work with them in the next general elections.

If this turns out to be true, TRS will have a tough time deciding about their future.

Undavalli Arunkumar is known more as a ‘foul mouthed’ creature than as a member of the parliament. He is the one who kindled the Eenadu-Government fight and made a big issue out of nothing. Around two years back, he started this huge fuss about the financial collapse and the risk of investments in the Margadarsi bank, which is a part of the Eenadu group of companies. At that time, the state government which was waiting for a chance to take a revenge on the Eenadu newspaper which exposed many government scams started encouraging Undavalli and this guy had successfully tarnished the image of Ramoji Rao, at least to some extent. However, he could never prove a single case against Ramoji Rao nor that Margadarsi did not pay back a single investor.

Now that the Satyam Software is exposed, people were expecting Undavalli to expect similarly as this scam was exactly what Undavalli had been talking for years and hoping to see in Margadarsi. Alas! Undavalli started supporting ‘Satyam Software’ and said that he did not want to make any comments about ‘Satyam fraud’ as this will create panic among the employees of Satyam and he also added that, though Satyam is financially exposed, it has many ‘land assets’ and the company can be easily saved using these assets.

So, the obvious questions for Undavalli are the following -

- Did you think that there are no employees in Margadarsi who will be panic struck by your baseless arguments?

- Don’t you know that Eenadu group, that backs Margadarsi Chit Funds has 2000 acres of land in Hyderabad?

The reason why Undavalli is supporting Satyam Software is more than obvious. His party men have investments in the company and are also remotely and indirectly related to this scam. So, Undavalli finds everything fair in this ‘already exposed scam’. But he wouldn’t admit that Margadarsi, in which he couldn’t find a single fault for the last two years,  is following good corporate governance.

This is the best example of the dirty demeanor exhibited by Undavalli Arunkumar  in many instances. Hope that he will not be elected back as an MP in the next general elections and save the state from this watch dog (he described himself as a ‘watch dog’!).

Interestingly, his own party men are disappointed with the barking of this watch dog and have suggested him to stop attacking Ramoji Rao and his group of companies. The parties seniors feel that Undavalli is the reason for teh strong retaliation their party faces from the Eenadu newsgroup. They believe that Eenadu would not have gone completely against them, if Undavalli did not irk its authorities.

Congress senior leader and state financial minister Rosaiah made some interesting comments about the current state of politics in the country. Rosaiah attended the Jana Chaitanya Vedika meeting on Sunday and talked to the media about the politics in the country. He clarified that he will not contest in the next election general elections but would continue working for the party as an ordinary member.

He then expressed his feelings about the degrading state of politics in the country. He said that money is playing the most important role in politics today and that he had this urge to quit politics since a long time. The reason for him continuing in the party is because he did not want to earn bad reputation for deserting the party when the party is in need of senior leaders.

He cited an example about a politician in Karnataka (he did not reveal the name) who spent 27 crore for campaigning in the recent general elections. Rosaiah said that he, who introduced a budget of 90k crore rupees was shocked at the figure spent by a single individual for campaigning. He went on saying that the current politics is so rotten that, even if Mahatma Gandhi comes back alive, he will be allowed to contest in the elections only if he has the financial potential to spend in the elections.

Is Rosaiah hinting something about the state of politics in his own party?

After Satyam RamaLinga Raju openly admitted that he had committed a huge corporate fraud of Rs. 8000 crore, it is the turn of the politicians to sling mud on each other holding the opponent responsible for the Satyam collapse. Satyam Software had ditched all its investors by revealing that the company had been showing false accounts for the past few years. This is the biggest corporate fraud in India and is also termed as Indian Enron, as this is on similar lines as the Enron scam in United States.

After this incident, opposition leader ChandraBabu alleged that the ruling party should be held responsible for not being able to detect such a huge fraud in the initial stages. He also alleged that the chief minister had the knowledge of the on going fraud and never bothered to contain it.

Chief Minister YSR responded to these allegations in a rather aggressive way. He said that, it is Chandra Babu Naidu, when he was in the Government who supported and encouraged Satyam Computers. He cited the incident when Bill Clinton, the then president of United States visited Andhra Pradesh. At that time, CBN introduced RamaLinga Raju to Bill and also made him sit besides Bill Clinton on the same stage. The Chief Minister went on saying that the state Government has nothing to do with the Satyam scam and alleged that RamaLinga Raju is a close associate to CBN.

Chief Minister also added that he will order a judicial probe into the entire scam and will also review the various state projects given to the sister companies if Satyam Computers.

Satyam Software Ltd has gone bankrupt after the CEO Rama Linga Raju revealed that he committed fraud by falsifying the accounts of the company over the last few years. He admitted that the profits and interest gains shown by Satyam every quarter are not true and were done just for the sake of saving the company from the threat of takeover. This is considered the biggest corporate scam of India where 7000 crore rupees were embezzled. Satyam is now being called ‘Indian Enron’.

That the CEO of Satyam and the central office of Satyam are in Andhra Pradesh, questions about the ‘hand’ of the politicians if the state are being rised. It is very clear that the state government has nothing to do with the fraud, about which the board of directors themselves were unaware. However, the state government is being criticized for not being more careful with this company. In fact, the government has given away 50 acres of land worth Rs. 200 crore for a meagre amount of Rs. 5 crore in Visakhapatnam to Satyam Software Ltd, on the condition that Satyam will provide employment to 10000 people in the state. The government should have been more careful while taking such important decisions!

Film actress Roja had been playing a very active role in politics for the Telugu Desam Party and was also elected as the President of TDP Women wing. She had been making cutting remarks on Congress as well as PRP which could not retaliate as they did not have a female leader with enough popularity. On their search, Congress found Jeevita who is Rajasekhar’s wife.

Fortunate enough for Jeevitha, he had a personal problem with Chiranjeevi and the sharp comments she made at that time attracted the attention of Congress leaders. In a few days, she joined the Congress party and it was learnt later that the Congress leaders promised her the leadership of Congress Women wing. With this boost she went on criticizing Chiranjeevi even when it was not necessary.

Unfortunately, Congress has taken a decision against her and decided to make Ganga Bhanavni as the President, who had been serving the party for more than 10 years.  This came as a shock to Jeevitha who maintains that she is not into the party for posts, but to ’serve people’. A few Congress leaders said, with Ganga Bhavani in competition, Jeevitha does not stand a chance to be the President anywhere in the near future.

Congress leader and Chief Minister of the state, YSR had been very confident till yesterday that Congress will win 230 out of 296 constituencies in the next elections and that Congress will be the ruling party for the next five year term also. He used to cite the various survey results conducted by his own party members to prove that his party will indeed win the next elections also. He firmly believed and said many a times with the media, the the developmental activities by their Government in this term is enough to get them back to power in the elections next year.

But people decided otherwise. The results of the ZPTC bi-elections in seven ZPTCs’ shocked the chief minister and his other ‘over-confident’ party members. Of the seven locations, Congress won three places while the opposition has taken away four places. This happened in spite of Praja Rajyam party staying away from the elections. These results brought the Congress party into reality.

Chief Minister lost the previous smile on his face and usual ‘230/296′ mantra he used to utter. He immediately decided to go to E. Godavari to discuss with the party leaders the reason for the defeat and to understand the real state of the party in the state. On the other hand, TDP which showed clear majority in these elections is busy celebrating its victory.

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.