With Congress just winning two seats in the by-polls, the image of both the party and megastar Chiru have comedown drastically. To repair the damage, our star-hero is preparing guns in the lines of YSR and Jagan now.

According to Congress insiders, Chiru is planning something like an Odarpu Yatra for poor voters who are suffering from the inefficiency of the government in solving problems. Earlier Jagan used to do Odarpu-Yatra for them and fetched huge win in the by-polls, so Chiru is copying him now. Meeting farmers and sleeping in social-welfare hostels are said to be main agenda of Chiru to boost party’s image. This is what Jagan tried to do all the time though he is not having full political power and Chiru is repeating it.

The big question is how Chiru would solve the issues raised by farmers and other common people when a person like Chief Minister is not able to. Other than raising his own image, public will get no benefits, says a political observer.

Legislature Secretary and Returning Officer of Presidential Election Raja Sadaram has said that arrangements have been completed for polling in the committee hall number 1. He said that MLAs could cast their votes from 10 am to 5 pm. Apart from the State MLAs, four MPs have also obtained permission to vote in Hyderabad. They are the Congress Rajya Sabha Member N. Janardhan Reddy, TDP MP Narayana Rao and YSR Congress MPs Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy. The Congress party’s 155 MLAs, 31 Lok Sabha and 13 Rajya Sabha members will vote for UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee. However, two MLAs of Congress and one MLA from TDP, who have recently resigned to their parties, are likely to vote as per their conscience. MIM, CPM and Lok Satta numbering nine have declared support to UPAs candidate Pranab Mukherjee.

The YSR Congress with 17 MLAs and two Lok Sabha members also declared support to Pranab Mukherjee. BJP with three MLAs will vote for the NDA candidate P.A. Sangma. The main opposition TDP, which has six Lok Sabha and five Rajya Sabha members apart from 86 MLAs, have decided to abstain from the polling. TRS with two Lok Sabha members and 17 MLAs is also likely to abstain. The CPI has already decided to abstain from the election at the national level. Different political parties are making arrangements to ensure polling by three MLAs, who are indisposed.

The CBI court has extended the remand of the YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy arrested in the Illegal assets till August 1. The court has also extended the remand of all other accused in the illegal assets, OMC irregularities and Emaar Properties cases till August 1.

CBI judge Durga Prasada Rao has heard Jagan, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, Nimmagadda Prasad and Brahmananda Reddy through video conferencing in the Jagan assets case. The judge has also heard former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardana Reddy from Bangalore jail and B V Srinivasa Reddy and Raja Gopal from the Chanchalguda jail, in the OMC case. In the same case, the judge has also heard Koneru Prasad, Sunil Reddy and B P Acharya. Jail authorities have produced Sri Lakshmi and Vijaya Raghava in the court in person. The judge has extended the remand of all the accused till August 1, 2012.

The Supreme Court has on Wednesday admitted the petition filed by the YSR Congress party’s honorary president Y S Vijayamma, challenging the dismissal of her petition by the AP high court on the assets of the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and some others.

The Apex Court has posted the petition of Vijayamma to July 23 for hearing.Challenging the high court’s decision of dismissing her petition, Vijayamma has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, in which she has asked for investigation into the assets of Chandrababu and 16 others.

It may be recalled that the high court had earlier ordered for investigation by the CBI, ED and other agencies into the assets of all those named by Vijayamma including Chandrababu Naidu. However some of the respondents have gone to the Supreme Court and challenged the investigation on the grounds that it was against principles of natural justice that investigation was ordered without giving them notices. The Supreme Court has directed them to go back to the High Court and seek justice there itself.

Following this direction, these respondents have filed petitions in the high court, challenging the investigation. However, after examining these petitions, the High Court has said there was no Public Interest in the case and dismissed Vijayamma’s petition.

Vijayamma has challenged the decision of the High Court in the Supreme Court. Vijayamma has also named Eenadu group chairman Ramoji Rao and some other TDP leaders in her petition. She has contended that persons like Sujana Choudary and CM Ramesh have benefited during the TDP regime and the then government had indulged in misuse of power to benefit them to do favours to them.

It is learnt that the YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has finally decided to vote for the UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential elections and has also conveyed his decision to him.Congress MP Sabbam Hari who has been supporting Jagan has met him in the Chanchalguda jail on Thursday. It is learnt that he met Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi later. and reportedly informed him and other Congress leaders about the decision of Jagan.

Though NDA nominee PA Sangma has also met Vijayamma at Hyderabad and sought her party’s support, it is learnt that the family has decided not to further antagonize the Congress leadership by supporting the BJP candidate. They also reportedly thought that supporting BJP would be against the earlier stand taken by Jagan not to associate himself with the party and it might also send wrong signals to the Muslim community among whom the party has considerable backing. The YSR Congress now has 2 MPs including Jagan and 17 MLAs.

The stand of TDP and TRS is yet to be known. TDP has sent messages to all its MPs and MLAs to be available from the 17th onwards. Similar instructions were also given to the MPs and MLAs of TRS. The two parties are still toying with the idea of boycotting the election.

The opposition TDP has decided not to vote either the UPA’s candidate Pranab Mukherjee or the NDA candidate P A Sangma in the Presidential poll to be held on Thursday.

This was confirmed by the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu here on Tuesday evening. He said that as his party has been fighting against the anti-people policies of the Congress since more than 3 decades, it could not support UPA candidate. He also said that it could not also support the NDA candidate Sangma as he was put up by the communal BJP party. As such, his party has decided to refrain from voting, he has added.

The decision was earlier informed to the media by the party MP Ramesh Rathod. He told the media that the TDP Telangana Forum has decided not to vote to Pranab Mukherjee as he was anti-Telangana. He said when their decision was conveyed to the party leadership, the leadership has conceded their demand and decided to abstain from voting. This was later confirmed by the TDP chief.

IAS officer’s association representatives have met the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy at the secretariat on Tuesday and complained to him about the reported statement of the minor irrigation minister T G Venkatesh that non-functioning IAS officers should be shot dead.They told the CM that the minister has repeated his statement instead of expressing his regrets after they protested. They have asked the Chief Minister to take suitable action against the minister.

It is learnt that the IAS officers association has initially thought of filing a police case against the minister for inciting violence against them. They have also consulted legal experts who said there was a clear case and they could complain to the police. However wiser counsel prevailed and the association leaders first wanted to talk to the Chief Minister who was then in East Godavari district tour. They have met the Chief Minister who has come back on Tuesday. It is learnt that the IAS officers would wait for the Chief Minister to reprimand the minister before going to the police.

IAS officers are stating that the statement of the minister might embolden people to attack officers in the field.It is learnt that TGV was peeved when officers chose to ignore his instructions of de-silting minor tanks and irrigation canals before the onset of monsoon, despite his being the concerned minister and order-issuing authority.

Taking serious exception to Sircilla MLA and TRS leader K Taraka Ramarao’s dubbing Kiran Kumar Reddy as a ‘lottery Chief Minister’, Anil said that it was not proper for KTR, a first-time MLA, to criticize the Chief Minister, who was a fourth time MLA and had the experience of working as Speaker of Assembly.

He also said that the Congress high command would pick up a capable person to the pivoted post generally and also the Congress was not a feudal party like TRS. He warned KTR that the Congress and the people would teach a fitting lesson to him if he failed to stop criticizing the Chief Minister again. He also advised KTR to behave like a politician and it would help him to continue in politics, otherwise he would face problems.