Hero Bala Krishna who warned the baddies not to try to look at his other side in the hit film ‘Simha’ is now eager to show his other side in Politics.The Senior actor had recently announced his entry in to direct politics last week to rescue the image of the party founded by his father, which is plummeting down to an all time low. The actor had reportedly his brother-in-law and TDP Supremo Chandrababu Naidu to give him some status in the party as well as some specific responsibilities so that he could instantly concentrate on rebuilding the party.

It is learnt that he has assured Naidu that he would work for the party for 15 days every month, sparing the remaining time for films. Consequently, it is learnt that Naidu is considering to give the General Secretary post to Balayya. Interestingly, Late NTR had nominated Chandra Babu in the same post when he first came in to the party. Balayya is reportedly planning to tour the entire state irrespective of elections.

Telugu Desam Party’s Vijayawada urban unit president Vallabhaneni Vamsi, who has gone into oblivion ever since his friend Gudivada MLA Kodali Sri Venkateshwara Rao alias Nani quit the TDP and joined the YSR Congress party, finally came out of his hiding on Monday.

He surfaced in Vijayawada and called for press conference where he made it clear that he would continue to be in the TDP forever. He refuted the reports that appeared in a section of media that he would be following Nani to join the YSR Congress party and would soon meet its honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi.

“It is totally a baseless rumour. I am not going to reply to the rumours spread by the others. There is no need for me to quit the TDP and join any other party. I will remain in the TDP for ever,” he clarified.

Stating that he had already clarified to party president N Chandrababu Naidu on the Jagan-hugging episode, Vamsi said it was unfortunate that Nani had shifted loyalties to YSR Congress party.

“The party will look into taking further action against Nani,” he said.

It may be mentioned that Vamsi had gone into the shell after Nani was suspended from the TDP. He was not present at the press meet by Vijayawada leaders to condemn Nani’s defection. Subsequently, he switched off his mobile and remained inaccessible to the party leaders, leading to the speculations that he, too, would be joining YSR Congress party.

YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is likely to come out of the jail on bail in the first week of August, if one were to go by the sources in the Congress party in New Delhi.

According to these sources, Jagan’s petition for bail would come up for hearing in the Supreme Court in the last week of July. The instruction to the Central Bureau of Investigation from the Delhi bosses is that it should not put up any strong argument to oppose the bail, unlike what it did in CBI court and the state high court. This would facilitate the Supreme Court to grant bail to Jagan, sources said.

It is learnt that Presidential nominee of the UPA Pranab Mukherjee has taken the initiative in securing bail to Jagan as a goodwill gesture to the latter’s support to him in the Presidential elections. Pranab is learnt to have convinced the party leadership that the longer Jagan is in the jail, the more will be the damage to the Congress party. So, it is better Jagan comes out of the jail on bail.

Perhaps, Jagan’s mother Vijayalakshmi has also been sounded about the release of Jagan. That is the reason why she told the party workers in Pulivendula on Monday that her son would come out of the jail very soon and they should maintain restraint.

The observations made by Nandamuri Balakrishna, cine hero and son of late N T Rama Rao, on the Telugu Desam party (TDP) affairs and his assertion about his entry into politics, has become a topic of intense debate in the political circles of the State, and more so among the TDP leaders and workers.

Balakrishna, popularly known as Balayya, has created a flutter on Saturday by stating that he would plunge into active politics shortly, there would be no problem about the Party’s leadership issue and the chief ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections would be none other than Nara Chandrababu Naidu, TDP president and former chief minister. He also said that he would strive to strengthen the party by all means, and accept any position offered to him in the party.

These statements of Balakrishna were being interpreted in different ways by the party leaders. Though Balayya has stated that there were no differences in the Nandamuri family and all of them were united, it is a known fact that actor Harikrishna, the elder son of late NT Rama Rao, and also NTR Jr were having reservations on the style of functioning of Chandrababu Naidu. Harikrishna had never minced matters and he openly criticized Chandrababu Naidu, on more than one occasion, for giving party tickets to industrialists and crorepathis, in the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections.

Many of the senior leaders are distancing themselves from the TDP of late only because of Naidu’s attitude in selection of nominees for the Upper Houses. They are of the view that Naidu was ignoring the senior leaders, who were loyal to the party through thick and thin, and promoting industrialists and rich people for obvious reasons, and this is bound to do great damage to the party.

Party leaders were also divided on the impact that could be created by Balayya among the people and his efficiency to strengthen the TDP and help Naidu to become chief minister. A section of the TDP leaders are of the opinion that Naidu has roped in Balayya only to counter NTR Jr and Harikrishna.

Some leaders feel that Balayya had proved a failure in the films and the same would be the case in politics, and he would not be able to enlist the support of the people in favour of TDP and its leader. They point out that Balayya had campaigned for the party in the last elections and also in some of the by-elections, but it had not shown any impact on the party. Similarly, the entry of Naidu’s son Lokesh into politics would not make much difference for the TDP, they feel.

Congress senior leader and former Union minister Tikkavarapu Subbarami Reddy has said that he would contest from the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.Speaking to the media here on Sunday, Subbarami Reddy said that Union Minister Purandhareswari, who represents the constituency now was a good friend of his. He said that it was he who had invited Purandhareswari into Congress and offered her his Visakhapatnam constituency which he represented in the Lok Sabha. He said that if the party high command directs him, he was ready to contest from Visakhapatnam in 2014. Reddy also said that he would fulfill all the promises he made in Nellore where he had unsuccessfully contested against the YSR Congress candidate Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy.

It may be mentioned here that there has been a dispute between Purandhareswari and TSR, who both have been insisting on the Visakhapatnam constituency in the 2014 elections. To avert collision, the Congress high command made TSR to contest from the Nellore constituency in the recent by-election. Had he won the election, he would have retained that constituency. But, he lost by a huge margin of around 2.9 lakh votes despite his best efforts. He is unlikely to accept Nellore ticket in 2014 to face Raja Mohan Reddy once again.

RS 30 CRORE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF KGH

Subbarami Reddy also said that an amount of Rs 30 crores would be collected from the ONGC and BHEL for developing the King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam. He said this was in addition to the Rs 50 crores already announced by the Public Sector organizations. He also said that he was bringing pressure on the Centre to keep the Visakhapatnam airport open round-the-clock. He said this should be possible in two months.

Referring to reports about privatization of the Visakha steel plant, he said the Centre had assured him that there was no such move.