Andhra Politics - Congress ;TDP;PRP;TRS

This is an exact replica of the political situation in the state in 2004 before the elections, except for the role of TDP and Congress. In 2004, when TDP was ruling, all the opposition parties stood by Congress with the sole aim of getting TDP out of power, alleging that TDP has become an inefficient government.

Now, after five years of Congress ruling, the same oppositions parties (CPM, CPI and TRS) have joined hands with TDP and this time their sole aim to bring down Congress and the allegation on Congress government is high corruption. The leaders of all the opposition parties met here in Chandra Babu’s residence and have announced that they have all united and formed Maha Kootami (Great Allinace) and will bring down the corrupted Congress government in the next elections which are to be held in a few months.

Hope that this Maha Kootami will fare well and achieve its goal.

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.

Newly established political party, Praja Rajyam is completely isolated in the state now. PRP has been trying to form a coalition with the political parties in the state, other than TDP and Congress. Their initial attempts to coalate with the Communists appeared to be fruitful but were in vain, when the communists have finally decided to go with Telugu Desam.

Since then, PRP has been trying to get along with Telanga Rashtra Samithi. However, President or TRS has given a clear signal yesterday that even he would be going along with Telugu Desam in the next elections. Though not officially declared, KCR made a comment which suggested that his party has decided to stay together with TDP. He said that time has arrived for himself and Chandra Babu to work together again.

This decision has completed the isolation of PRP. It is evident now that, PRP must stand alone in the next general elections. Chandra Babu has shown his political diligence by attracting both the Communists and TRS towards his party.

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.

Kuppam constituency had been Chandra Babu’s fort for the past few decades. Even when the entire party was in crisis in the year 2004, Chandra Babu could win with a majority of 60K from Kuppam. No one ever doubted that Chandra Babu would lose from Kuppam. However, recent developments suggest that Chandra Babu is losing his grip on this constituency. This situation rose because of the special interest of Chief Minister Rajasekhar who is very keen to defeat Chandra Babu in Kuppam or least reduce his majority drastically in the next elections. To this effect, YSR has successfully attracted many members from TDP into his own party, mainly through monetary offers from the Government.

Chandra Babu who was confident in the initial days, has realized that he is losing his grip in Kuppam and decided to take some damage prevention measures to prevent further migrations into Congress. Being the President of TDP, it is not possible for him to concentrate on Kuppam and thus he decided to send some one else on his behalf to completely look after the party proceedings in the constituency.

After few deliberations, Babu and his party members decided Lokesh, Chandra Babu’s only son to be the most suitable candidate for this work. Lokesh had never been into politics and was attending a school in US for the past few years. Now, according to TDP sources, he might work in Kuppam to get back the hold on this constituency. This would be informal and Lokesh will not join in the party and thus in not officially ‘into politics’.

Another ‘heriditary political family’ can be seen in the near future.

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.

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.

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.