Watch పవన్ కళ్యాణ్ కు వడదెబ్బ | Pawan Kalyan
Centre to keep tab on TDP ‘poll management’
Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is known for his ‘poll management’ in the last days of electioneering. His party had won most of the elections in the past only due to its poll-management tactics.
The TDP leaders have been specifically trained to attract voters in the last few days of campaigning with money and other inducements.
The booth-level workers become very active in the final hours to entice the voters. Hundreds of crores of rupees flow only in the last two days before polling.
Now that Naidu had developed enmity with the Bharatiya Janata Party and particularly targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre is going all out to thwart Naidu’s poll management tactics in the eleventh hour.
The ongoing raids by the Income Tax department authorities on several TDP leaders and also by the local police working under the instructions of the Election Commission are part of the Centre’s strategy to prevent the TDP from indulging in any last minute poll management activities.
On Friday, the Kadapa police conducted a raid on the residences of TDP Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh at his residence in Potladurthy of Erranguntla block to find out whether he had stashed any money in his house for distribution among the voters. However, they did not find much, as Ramesh had taken all precautionary measures.
A couple of days ago, the IT authorities raided the house of Ramesh’s friend and TDP candidate for Mydukuru constituency in Putta Sudhakar Yadav.
Earlier, last week, the ED attached the properties worth over Rs 300 crore belonging to Sujana Group promoted by another Rajya Sabha member Sujana Chowdary.
Ramesh alleged that the Election Commission was acting like a puppet of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
“It is very clear that the searches were conducted at the behest of the Centre to help the YSR Congress Party. But we are not afraid of any such searches or raids,” Ramesh said.
Police Raids on CM Ramesh
Even as TDP is crying foul over the alleged ‘politically-motivated’ raids on its leaders, the raids continued on the senior leaders of TDP. A day after IT raids on TTD chairman and Mydukur MLA Putta Sudhakar Naidu, about 30 police personnel have reached CM Ramesh’s home early morning today. Around 6 AM, police people have come to CM Ramesh’s home and searched every inch of the three-storey building. Ramesh said to have questioned the police whether they are carrying ‘search warrant’, but cops declined to comment and reportedly told him that they are acting as per orders from the top.
Cops have searched for over an hour at CM Ramesh’s residence at Potladurthi in Erraguntla of Kadapa district. Cops turned back empty hand as they haven’t found ‘anything’ at Ramesh’s house. CM Ramesh and his brother Suresh Naidu were present at the house when cops raided.
After that, cops have raided the houses of CM Ramesh’s followers. CM Ramesh has fumed over the untimely searches of cops. He said these are politically motivated searches. He alleged that only TDP leaders are being targeted and said IT, police are trying to ‘scare’ TDP candidates ahead of elections.
Buzz: Is Facebook Helping BJP?
With Facebook removing almost 702 pages and accounts from India linked to the Congress Party, several aspersions have been cast on the social media giant’s policies. A Facebook statement said “we have removed 138 pages and 549 accounts which it found “connected to individuals associated with an INC IT Cell.” The page admins and account owners typically posted about local news and political issues, including the upcoming elections, candidate views, and criticism of political opponents including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Of late, Facebook has been taking stringent measures to regulate political advertisements to ensure the the platform is not spreading fake news, especially with Lok Sabha elections about to begin in just a few days. According to several leaders in the Opposition, this is going to indirectly benefit the BJP as they will have an undue advantage over the Congress following the removal of their accounts. Further, the Congress’ spend is comparatively lesser than that of the BJP on Facebook.
On the other hand, political observers also say that Facebook could also land up in trouble as it could be perceived as supporting the BJP’s agenda and pushing it secretly. “There is a possibility of this situation turning out to be like the one in America’s Presidential elections where Facebook was accused of promoting Trump,” said a political analyst. During the US Presidential campaign, there were accusations on the social media giant that the political ads on Facebook drove neutral voters to choose Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Interestingly, Trump was also the highest spender on social media ads during his campaign for Presidency.
A similar trend could be repeated in India, where Facebook could push a lot of fence-sitters to vote for Narendra Modi again in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as the BJP is one of the highest spender on political campaigns on Facebook in India. Additionally, Narendra Modi’s 2014 social media campaign created a record of sorts for devising one of the best marketing strategies in the world, which earned him popularity and made him a social media star. The DNA of BJP is such that they believe in brand building which is part of their marketing juggernaut.
Even analysts claim that BJP is carpet-bombing social media, especially Facebook and Youtube to ensure that they reach every voter in every corner of India. According to a survey, BJP’s publicity blitz is so crazy that it is even ahead of Netflix, an American media-services and video streaming behemoth, and Trivago, a hotel price comparison website. Given that the saffron party spends so heavily, it is evident that it has a huge corporate backing in terms of financial donations.
With such huge spends and bets on Facebook to further political advertisements, will the social media giant fall in the same trap it faced in the US? Only time will tell.
Take the coupon, Vote for FAN
With the polling date approaching, all the political parties in the Andhra Pradesh state are trying their best to woo the voters. YSR Congress party has launched an innovative concept by distributing coupons to the people.
This incident is reported in Penukonda assembly constituency in Anantapur district. The local YSRCP leaders have made a plastic card that have a serial number. They reached the voters and distributed these card to them and also said, basically this is a coupon, take it, get cash and vote for FAN which is YSRCP’s election symbol. If voter does exactly what the YSRCP leaders have said, he/she would get an amount of Rs 1000.
The talk about the YSRCP’s coupon scheme reached local TDP leaders. They have caught people are distributing these coupon cards and handed over them to the police.
Seems like this is a new theory of ‘Cash For Vote.’
YCP’s Amanchi abuses cops as K***a Police
Chirala YSR Congress party MLA candidate Amanchi Krishna Mohan is caught red-handedly abusing the police who are doing their jobs. Going in details, the police have detained when Amanchi was campaigning. As the police could not list out details of Amanchi arrest, the YSRCP leader lost his cool. This video of Amanchi using filthy language against cops is going viral.
“Mee K***a Policulu,” said Amanchi which means you cops are eunuchs and even went on to abuse the concerned Superintend of Police. Having heard this, one of the cops warned Amanchi not to speak further, if not the consequences would be severe. Though Amanchi wanted to make another comment, he restrained looking at the number of cops surrounding him.
This is a clear cut violation of election code by Amanchi as the language he used against a government official is quite offensive. Meanwhile, the YSRCP is blaming the police for provoking Amanchi and YSRCP cadre.
Nation first, Party next: Advani
Benched by the Bharatiya Janata Party High Command, former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP’s veteran leader L. K Advani said that the guiding principle of his life has always been “Nation first, party next, self last.” Writing about the BJP’s core values, he said that the saffron party has never regarded others with different views as “enemies or anti-national.”
Ahead of the BJP’s foundation day, Advani in a blogpost said: “Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our enemies, but only as our adversaries. Similarly, in our conception of Indian nationalism, we have never regarded those who disagree with us politically as anti-national.”
Advani, has been replaced by BJP Chief Amit Shah as Gandhinagar Lok Sabha candidate. Except for in 1996, the Gandhinagar seat was won by Advani six times ever since 1991. Interestingly, Advani stressed on the need for “Defence of democracy and democratic traditions, both within the party and in the larger national setting” and said that “it has been the proud hallmark of the BJP.”
Commenting on the electoral reforms and elections, he said: “Electoral reforms, with a special focus on transparency in political and electoral funding, which is so essential for a corruption-free polity, has been another priority for our party,” adding that “elections were also an occasion for honest introspection by all stakeholders in democracy – political parties, media, authorities conducting the election process and the electorate.”
In his blog, however, Advani did not criticise Modi-Shah duo but was subtly indicative of the direction India is taking under the Modi government. Moreover, the first person to react to Advani’s blogpost was none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted: “Advani Ji perfectly sums up the true essence of BJP, most notably the guiding Mantra of ‘Nation First, Party Next, Self Last.’ Proud to be a BJP Karyakarta and proud that greats like LK Advani Ji have strengthened it.”
Looks like the RSS has got both Modi and Advani to arrive at a consensus for the greater good of the party!
KCR government performed poorly on voter concerns: ADR
The K. Chandrashekar Rao government in Telangana performed ‘below average’ on the most important concerns of voters including employment opportunities, healthcare facilities and public transport, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Released on Friday, the ‘Telangana Survey 2018’ said the government also performed “poorly” in providing water for agriculture and tackling problems arising due to mining and quarrying.
Across the state, the major concerns of voters were better employment opportunities (65.99 per cent), better hospitals and primary healthcare centres (33.23 per cent) and improved public transport (25.89 per cent), according to the survey report by the election watchdog.
In rural Telangana, the top priorities were employment opportunities (63 per cent), higher price realization for farm products (45 per cent) and subsidy for seeds and fertilizers (44 per cent). The government performed ‘below average’ on all three, it said.
Employment (71 per cent), noise pollution (50 per cent) as well as air and water pollution (40 per cent) continued to be huge concerns for the urban voters.
Channel’s cheap tactics to target LP
It was a height of cheap journalism. Telugu television channel – TV5, which is known for its pro-Telugu Desam Party stand, indulged in a blatant character assassination of Nandamuri Lakshmi Parvathi, widow of legendary actor and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao.
Based on a complaint given by one Koti, claiming to be a follower of Lakshmi Paravathi, with the Vinukonda police in Guntur district, the channel on Thursday night telecast a repeated story seeking to project her in a bad light – that she is a woman without character, sex maniac and above all, she had no loyalty towards NTR.
What is worse, the so-called WhatsApp messages allegedly given by Lakshmi Parvathi to Koti were also circulated among the media, which soon went viral.
The channel also went on broadcasting an audio having a purported conversation between her and another person, in which she allegedly made derogatory comments against NTR.
Obviously, the pro-TDP channel wanted to damage the character of Laksmi Parvathi for two reasons: one, she is now a general secretary of YSR Congress party campaigning against TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh.
Secondly, she has suddenly become popular with release of Ram Gopal Varma’s film “Lakshmi’s NTR” in which she was projected as the most trusted wife of NTR and Naidu as a back-stabber and villain.
First of all, one doubts whether there is any authenticity to Koti’s complaint. One cannot even prove that the WhatsApp text messages to him were really from Lakshmi Parvathi, as anybody can create a phone number with her name.
So, even before the police took up the investigation and probed whether there is any fact in Koti’s complaint, the channel telecast it without any proofs and verification, so as to assassinate the character of the YSRC leader.
What more do you call it, if not the dirtiest journalism!
Title logo: ‘Venky Mama’
As a treat to all Akkineni and Daggubati fans ahead of the Ugadi festival, the title logo of ‘Venky Mama’ movie is unveiled.
The logo gives many details about the film. One side of the title, we can see a village set up and on the other side, there is army with helicopter and stuff.
So we can assume that either ‘victory’ Venkatesh or Naga Chaitanya will be seen as a soldier. Then the logo is surrounded zodiac symbols circle and makes an intriguing impression.
The genre of ‘Venky Mama’ is yet to be revealed but it’s up to the audience to keep guessing.
KS Ravindra (Bobby) is directing the movie while Raashi Khanna and Paayal Rajput are playing the female lead roles.
Suresh Productions and People Media Factory banners are jointly producing ‘Venky Mama.’
A Hero’s Anguish On Megastar’s Titles
He happens to be one of the popular mega heroes who is known for his coolness and also that great heart when it comes to doing something for his fans. But he is unhappy with one episode, as he feels that what is happening in Tollywood is not correct.
Generally speaking, we have family heroes coming with film titles that are used by their predecessors in the yesteryear. But now, while Nani has grabbed Megastar Chiranjeevi’s super popular “Gang Leader” title, then comes Bellamkonda Srinivas who has taken “Rakshasudu” title. When few managers met this mega hero regarding this, he’s said to have got upset.
“We don’t use and prolong the ideas for a longer time. This is what happens then. But who is going to listen?” the mega hero is said to have told to his team. Well, in the first place there is no wrong in other heroes using such titles but if mega heroes want to use themselves, then they need to rush.
Also, there are almost 150 film titles of Megastar and it’s not possible for the mega heroes to lay hands on all of them. While this particular mega hero’s anguish has a reason, surely its not something worth of giving some time.
After praising PK, Bandla Ganesh quits politics!
There is no dearth of maverick celebrities in Telugu film industry. They do not know what they talk and what decisions they will take.
One such classic example is actor-producer Bandla Ganesh, who made hit films like Sardar Gabbar Singh.
On Friday, Ganesh issued a statement surprising everybody that he was quitting from the Congress party and also politics permanently.
“I am relinquishing politics due to personal reasons. I am thankful to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy for encouraging me in politics. Now, I do not belong to any political party. I sincerely apologise to anybody who might have been hurt with my comments which I had made in the capacity of PCC official spokesman,” he tweeted.
Surprisingly, it was only on Thursday that Bandla Ganesh made political comments. He said though he was a Congress spokesman, he personally wished that Pawan Kalyan becomes the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Ganesh joined the Telangana Congress party before the recent assembly elections and was appointed as the PCC official spokesman. And he started making all sorts of controversial comments.
At one stage, he even declared that he would cut off his throat if Congress did not win in the Telangana general elections.
Now that the Congress is neither in Telangana nor in AP, Ganesh realised that it is waste of being in the party.
Though he said he was quitting politics, there is no guarantee that he would not join any other political party. Watch out for more from him!
Triangular fight in Nandyal once represented by PVNR
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh’s Nandyal Lok Sabha constituency has the distinction of being the only constituency to elect two eminent leaders who occupied the top most posts in the country.
While Neelam Sanjiva Reddy became the President after his election in 1977, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao was elected with a massive majority in 1991.
Sanjiva Reddy was elected on Janata Party ticket from the constituency located in Kurnool district in 1977. He was unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha and three months later elected unopposed as the country’s sixth President.
Narasimha Rao, hailing from Karimnagar district of the present day Telangana state, became Prime Minister in June 1991 and since he had not contested the general elections that year, he had to enter Parliament to remain on the post.
Gangula Prathapa Reddy of the Congress, who was elected from Nandyal, vacated the seat to enable Narasimha Rao to contest the by-election. While the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) opted out to ensure the unanimous election of “son of the soil”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded Bangaru Laxman.
Narasimha Rao defeated Laxman by a record majority of 580,297 votes. The veteran Congress leader was elected again in 1996 but this time with a reduced majority of 98,530 votes over his nearest rival Bhuma Nagi Reddy of the TDP.
Narasimha Rao, elected from two Lok Sabha seats, quit Nandyal to retain Berhampur in Odisha.
In the by-election held in 1996, Bhuma wrested the seat for the TDP and retained it in 1998 and 1999. Though the Congress wrested back the seat in 2004 and retained it in 2009, the Grand Old Party is no longer a force to reckon with here.
S.P.Y. Reddy, who won the seat twice for the Congress, contested 2014 elections as the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and defeated his nearest rival N.M. Farooq of the TDP by over one lakh votes. The Congress secured a mere 16,378 or 1.36 per cent of the total votes as it was hit hard by the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
After election on YSRCP ticket, S.P.Y. Reddy switched loyalty to the TDP. However, with the TDP denying him a ticket, he entered the fray as the candidate of Jana Sena of actor Pawan Kalyan.
Among the key contestants, he is the only seasoned politician as the candidates of both YSRCP and TDP are first-timers in electoral politics.
The ruling TDP has fielded Mandra Sivananda Reddy, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. He took voluntary retirement to plunge into politics. Though he had joined YSRCP, he crossed over to the TDP after 2014 polls.
TDP claims that the entry of former MLA Byreddy Rajasekhara Reddy, a powerful leader in the region, has brightened its prospects.
YSRCP has fielded Pocha Brahamananda Reddy, an industrialist who had joined the party a few days ago. Chairman of a seeds company, Bharati Seeds, he is making debut in to electoral politics.
As businessman-turned-politician S.Y. Reddy remains popular among the voters, especially the farmers, TDP and YSRCP are keeping their fingers as to whose votes he would cut into.
The Congress has fielded J. Lakshminarasimha Yadav, but he is not expected to dramatically change the fortunes of his party in its former bastion.
People feel that not much has changed for Nandyal although a Prime Minister representing the constituency. Besides the improvement in basic amenities, people are seeking creation of job opportunities.
Spread over seven Assembly segments, Nandyal constituency has 16 lakh voters. In 2014 elections, YSRCP bagged six out of seven Assembly seats. However, three of them later defected to TDP. Two more outgoing MLAs of YSRCP also quit the party to crossover to TDP.
Tamannaah, Malaika turn muses for Bobbi Brown
Global make-up legend Bobbi Brown has picked Indian stars Tamannaah Bhatia and Malaika Arora as her muses for her maiden India tour this month.
The 61-year-old is coming to the country for debut edition of the India Makeup Show (IMS), curated by Brothers Incorporated, founded by Rahul Tuljapurkar and Ninad Shah.
She will conduct an IMS Masterclass with Tamannaah as her muse in Mumbai on April 13 and Malaika as her muse in New Delhi on April 20, read a statement.
Three looks — bridal, evening and editorial — have been created for the masterclass.
“I have always considered Indians to be naturally beautiful. I was very particular on the person who would play my muse since this is my very first masterclass in India,” Bobbi said.
Explaining her decision, she said: “I wanted someone who could seamlessly bring to life the diverse looks I would be showcasing without comprising on her own individuality. Tamannaah happened to be the ideal choice for Mumbai — she is natural, beautiful and confident and represents the committed spirit of the city that never sleeps.
“Malaika, on the other hand, is a fashionista who is uncompromising when it comes to her style and beauty which somewhere represents the glitzy hustle and bustle of India’s capital. I’m certain they both will do full justice to what I wish to present to the Indian audiences.”
Tamannaah is elated to be a part of the show with Bobbi.
“Bobbi Brown is a timeless icon and a role model to many young women like me. This is such an honour. In fact, I have excused myself from my film commitments in Baku to make this a reality. I will be spending close to 48 hours on flight to spend those five hours with Bobbi. So you can well imagine my excitement level,” she said.
To this, Malaika added: “There are a lot of make-up artists I have associated with, but working with someone as iconic as Bobbi is such an honour, especially when it has always been one of the things I wanted to do in my bucket list. I’m very excited to see how she displays her signature no make-up look on me.”
The event will be hosted in Mumbai on April 12 and 13 at Dome and in New Delhi on April 20 at Hotel Pullman.
Majili Movie Review
Majili is a coming of age romantic drama with Chaitanya and Samantha playing the leading roles. Shiva Nirvana of Ninnu Kori fame offers yet another matured take on love, heartbreak and the life after it.
What is it about?
Poorna (Naga Chaitanya) a wannabe cricketer falls in love with Anshu (Divyansha) a North Indian rich girl. The couple gets separated and the heartbroken Poorna leads his life like a loser. Sravani (Samantha) who admires Poorna marries him in spite of knowing about his bad habits and heartbreak. How Poorna gets over his past love and accepts Sravani as his life partner forms rest of the story.
Performances:
Naga Chaitanya gets an author backed role and he did his best as Poorna. He is particularly impressive in the second half where he is going through a heartbreak. Samantha enters the scene just before the intermission and steals the show with her spectacular performance. Divyansha is just fine. Rao Ramesh is impressive as Chay’s father and Posani is his usual self as an annoying neighbor. The guy who played Chay’s friend is very good. Subbaraju, Ravi Prakash, Atul Kulakarni and rest of the supporting cast are alright in their respective roles.
Technicalities:
Director Shiva Nirvana follows the similar template of love-heartbreak-redemption that he dealt with in his debut film. The director once again shows very good maturity in handling relations and sensitive issues. He has done a fabulous job in getting the emotional content right.
Music by Gopi Sunder is good. A couple of songs are catchy. Thaman’s background score is superb. Cinematography is decent. Dilaogues are very good in emotional scenes. Production values are good.
Thumbs Up:
Naga Chaitanya
Samantha
Emotional Second Half
Thumbs Down:
Slow Paced
Lengthy First Half
Analysis:
Majili is a relatable story with effective dialogue. Many lovers get separated and shares their lives with someone else. What if someone who couldn’t get over his past love gets married to another woman? Majili deals with this subject that takes ample time to showcase the past of the protagonist. First half is a mix of many things. It has Poorna’s friends, goals, goons and a love story. It is all predictable as the plot was revealed in the promos itself.
First half is alright but moves at a very leisure pace. The romance part also is very ordinary with random scenes. Things get interesting with the introduction of Samantha character. There is a nice little touch of showing the past of the protagonist from her point of view. She admires him and loves him unconditionally, but he couldn’t get over his past. There is a twist thrown in for him to get over everything and realize the love of his wife.
Although a bit cinematic, the last act in Majili is okay. The film’s biggest problem is its slow pace and it remains to be on the slower side even in the second half. But what works in its favor is the well executed emotions and very good performances. Not just the lead pair, but also the supporting star cast does their job. A couple of songs are good, but a better audio album would have helped it reach another level.
On a whole, Majili is a decent romantic drama that will appeal to the matured audience as well as the youth. The film gets dramatic and sloppy at times, but keeps its viewers interested with some well written scenes and dialogue. It has its share of shortcomings, but ends on a satisfactory note with Samantha and Chaitanya pulling it off with their unmistakable chemistry.
Verdict: Emotional Majili!
