Director Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Lakshmi’s NTR’ trailer has created a huge storm among the political and industry circles. The film is going to hit the screens in the second week of March and might well turn into a controversy with the view of elections.

So far the Nandamuri family and TDP chose to ignore as they opined that rather than involving in unnecessary stuff, it’s better to remain silent. But AP CM Chandrababu Naidu is heard to have opened up about the film for the first time, that too in an indirect manner so that it may not attract headlines. He has been holding discussions with his party leaders to discuss about the elections and while having a word about many issues, ‘Lakshmi’s NTR’ topic came.

Reacting on it, Chandrababu said, “New voters will be more in number and will play a crucial role in the elections. Educate them about NTR and his life. Some are trying to fabricate NTR’s history in a bad light and conspiring against TDP, don’t hesitate to hit back at these sort of gimmicks.”

However, the TDP chief reminded the leaders not to give much importance to the film as election commission is there to take care of it in case if the film has objectionable content. But TDP sympathisers are in no mood to be soft on RGV and the film. They might go against ‘Lakshmi’s NTR’ to court.

Congress leader and former heroine Vijay Shanthi has made interesting comments on Harish Rao being kept out of cabinet. Vijay Shanthi commented that it was her who was ignored by KCR and now it is Harish Rao who has been shown the door by KCR. Vijay Shanthi said Ale Narendra was the first, herself was second and now Harish Rao who got less prominence in TRS. Vijay Shanthi said she was forced to leave the party and alleged that Harish is also being treated in similar fashion.

Vijay Shanthi’s comments have kicked up a storm in TRS circles. Even as Harish had already cleared the air stating that he is not upset with KCR for not being given Ministry, a section of Harish Rao’s fans and his loyalists are not at all happy. Harish had earlier stated that he is a disciplined leader in the party and work as per the aspirations of CM. Yet, Vijay Shanthi’s fresh comments are now increasing fears in Harish’s camp.

Meanwhile, strong political talk is that Harish Rao would be sent to Lok Sabha in the forthcoming elections. However, Harish’s loyalists in the party are worried that their camp would get less importance in the coming days.

Rumour mills are working overtime to predict where AP IT Minister Nara Lokesh would contest the upcoming Andhra Pradesh assembly elections from. Political circles are rife with speculation that the latest on the TDP High Command’s mind is Guntur which could be a winning seat for Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s son.

Before becoming a minister in 2016, Lokesh was actively looking after party affairs. Following this he was nominated as an MLC and then made a minister in Chandrababu’s cabinet by handling over IT, Panchayat Raj and Rural development portfolios. It is believed that he was given Panchayat Raj and Rural Development portfolios to develop a rapport with grassroots people and keep an ear to the ground. That way, he would understand and connect with people on ground which could help him build his image by the time he contests as an MLA for Assembly.

Given that this is the first time that Nara Lokesh will be contesting in the elections, the TDP leadership is carefully analysing which seat fits him best and can make it easy for his win. Earlier, the TDP leadership has considered Rayalaseema as the region for Lokesh’s contest. However, with Chandrababu contesting from Rayalaseema, it was believed that Lokesh could be contesting from North Coastal Andhra. Now, this plan seems to be shelved and a new region has caught the TDP High Command’s attention, say party sources.

It is learnt that Lokesh is keen on contesting from Pedakurapadu constituency in Guntur district. Currently, TDP’s Kommalapati Sridhar is the MLA from Pedakurapadu constituency. Though Mangalagiri also came up for discussion, Pedakurapadu may be finalised as the party has a strong hold on ground in this constituency. According to party sources, Sridhar has agreed to sacrifice his seat to Lokesh as it is safe seat for TDP.

On the other hand, the TDP High Command has promised to acknowledge Sridhar’s sacrifice and nominate him to the Legislative Council. However, some leaders in TDP are of the opinion that Lokesh should either choose Coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema instead of choosing the capital region. Well, the party High Command is set to come out with a decision soon on this!

Former Telangana IT Minister and currently the working-president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, KT Rama Rao, has this unique image on Twitter. He not only tweets about politics, but also shares his opinions on various happenings, reacts on news and often shares some lighter vein humor too.

For the kind of image he has, KTR commands over 1.57 million followers, but actually, he gets trolled by the netizens very rarely. And then, other day one of his tweets has invited a lot of trolling from twitterati as many felt that he has wrong timed his tweet.

Apparently, the son of Telangana CM shared a video where one guy displays his presence of mind in the silliest way while his friend is trying to grab his cellphone on the other side of the fence. As KTR shared this video, there are netizens who have shot back at him, asking him to respond on the issue of farmers from Telangana who are not getting best asking price. Some asked him to look into real estate frauds and others, while he has time to watch the funny videos.

Some netizens, however, responded humorous as KTR added the message, “And the smartest award goes to”, they asked him to recommend these guys for one type of awards that were given recently.

The exodus of legislators from Telugu Desam Party into YSR Congress Party initially looks like a random decision by MLAs and MPs. After Amanchi Krishna Mohan, Avanthi Srinivas’ exit caused much surprise in political circles as he had attended TDP’s Chief N. Chandrababu Naidu’s day-long fast in Delhi on one day and the very next day, quit the party to join YSR Congress.

Not only that, within a few, another Telugu Desam MP P. Ravindra Kumar also tendered his resignation to the yellow party to join YSR Congress party. Both the MPs and their pattern of quitting appeared to be abrupt and same. The very next day after quitting TDP, Amanchi, Avanthi as well as Ravindra Kumar, all put a pressere to criticise Chandrababu and alleged that they were being discriminated.

However, there is much deeper planning and strategy by YSR Congress that led to the exit of these leaders from TDP. Apparently, YSR Congress Party is targeting all the MPs and MLAs who have invested large sums of wealth on assets and lands in and around Hyderabad. Among them are Avanthi Srinivas and P. Ravindra Babu, say TDP sources. So, how is this being managed? The Telangana Rashtra Samithi apparently involves in creating the fear to cause loss to the properties and assets of these legislators and this is then conveyed through YSR Congress indirectly.

Fearing the loss of their property and assets, these legislators are forced to join the party. What’s more? Hyderabad is centre of all YSRCP’s plans and operations in the ‘Operation Aakarsh’ game. With YSRCP and TRS secret understanding coming handy for the party in attracting legislators, it definitely looks like it is stirring up the scene in AP politics, ahead of assembly elections in the state.

Who’s next in line to join YSRCP then? Well, it’s a wait and watch game that the TRS and YSRCP are playing against their common rival, TDP.

Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao might be putting up a brave front after being denied the cabinet berth during the recent expansion, but he continued to face the humiliation from the party leadership.

Though Harish has almost vacated his official bungalow in the Ministers’ Quarters at Road No. 12, Banjara Hills a couple of weeks ago after realizing that he might not get the cabinet berth, he did not hand over the same to the government but retained it for meeting his followers and people from his constituency regularly.

May be he thought KCR might change his mind and include him in the cabinet at the last moment. But after the Tuesday’s expansion, it was clear that Harish won’t have any chance of getting it at all.

Within a day of the cabinet expansion, Harish was told by the officials concerned to vacate the premises completely, as it is being allotted to another newly-appointed minister.

Having no other option, Harish quietly vacated his official quarters on Thursday and shifted lock, stock and barrel to his own house built at Vasanth Valley in Kondapur.

It is a sort of insult to Harish, who strived hard both as a minister for irrigation and also a sincere party worker to bring victory to the party in several constituencies.

A big development is expected in the sensational cash-for-vote case soon in Telangana in which TDP chief and AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu is one of the accused facing allegations of trying to bribe TRS nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson to vote in favour of TDP candidate in MLC elections held in June 2015.

The Telangana ACB and the central government’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department (I-T) have speeded up the investigation into the case at a time when AP is going for Assembly polls in two months.

The ED has issued notices to prime accused in the case, namely A Revanth Reddy (then TDP MLA and now Congress working president), Vem Narender Reddy (then TDP leader and now in Congress) and Udaya Simha.

All the three were grilled by ED recently.

Revanth alone was called for inquiry for two consecutive days on February 19 and 20 and was grilled for over ten hours for both days.

Vem Narender Reddy and his two sons were also called for questioning recently.

ED and I-T departments tried to obtain details from the accused from where Rs 50 lakh that was offered to Stephenson at his house on May 31, 2015 was mobilised and also the source of Rs 4.50 crore money that was promised to pay Stephenson, if he votes for TDP candidate Vem Narender Reddy in MLC elections.

Officials asked them to disclose who was the ‘sir’ who readied bribe amount, they were referring to in their conversation with Stephenson, which was caught on video tape by ACB.

All the three were learnt to have told ED and IT officials that the ‘sir’ they were referring to was ‘Chandrababu Naidu’, though there is no official confirmation on this.

After grilling, Revanth’s comments before media that Centre and TS governments were targetting Chandrababu in the name of cash for vote case has lent credence to this.

Revanth went on to say that all the questions that were asked by ED and IT officials were pointed at fixing Chandrababu. He also said Centre is trying to fire Chandrababu from KCR’s shoulders.

Going by the details obtained from Revanth and other two accused, ED is learnt to have taken a decision to issue notice to Chandrababu asking him to appear before it for questioning on this case soon.

This will be a huge blow to Chandrababu before crucial AP polls.

These latest developments are being speculated as KCR readying ‘return gift’ for Naidu that he vowed to present him during AP Assembly polls for his involvement in recent TS Assembly polls.

ED is expected to arrest the accused in the case for further investigation if it finds solid proofs of their involvement.