It is now official. The Congress party announced on Wednesday that it will not have any alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in the forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.

A decision to this effect was conveyed to Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee by AICC in-charge of Andhra affairs Oomen Chandy.

“We shall go it alone in the upcoming elections and contest all the 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh. We have received a message to this effect from the high command,” APCC chief N Raghuveera Reddy said.

He said the alliance with the TDP would be confined at the national level only after the elections and as such, the two parties would not have any truck in the elections.

“We shall announce our future course of action in the state at a broad meeting of party functionaries in Vijayawada on January 31,” Raghuveera said.

Stating that the decision of the Congress party to go alone in the elections was concerned with the sentiments of five crore people, the PCC chief said all out efforts would be made to ensure that Rahul Gandhi would become the next Prime Minister of the country.

“We will campaign extensively and ask the people to vote for the Congress party in the best interest of the nation,” he said.

In fact, there was a talk that the Congress and TDP decided against having an alliance after the meeting of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi recently.

Both the TDP and the Congress have realized that the alliance might backfire in AP, too, as it had in the recent assembly elections in Telangana.

Secondly, there is no guarantee that there would be transfer of votes between the TDP and the Congress.

Thirdly, if the Congress contests the elections alone, it might split the anti-establishment votes in the state thereby benefitting the TDP.

Within hours of Telugu Desam Party MLA from Rajampet Meda Mallikarjun Reddy getting suspended from the party and joining the YSR Congress party, his chamber in the state assembly was ransacked.

Meda continued to be the government whip in the state assembly till he joined the YSR Congress party. He resigned from the posts of MLA and government whip on Wednesday.

According to YSR Congress party leaders, even before Meda tendered his resignation, another government whip and TDP leader K Ravi Kumar gatecrashed into Meda’s chamber and destroyed some important files pertaining to the government.

He did not even take the permission of the assembly staff while he broke open the doors of Meda’s office to ransack the furniture and destroy files.

It is not exactly known what the files were, but apparently, they might be having some important papers pertaining to the government. May be the TDP did not want Meda to take away all those papers.

Naidu warned that there was no room for anybody in the party who troubled the cadre.

He said he had made Meda as an MLA and whip, while giving the TTD trust board membership to his father.

“Despite enjoying all these privileges during the last four-and-half years, Meda betrayed the party and cheated the cadre,” Naidu alleged.

A newly-elected government ruled by a political party will have five years to implement the promises made by it before the elections.The ruling party is expected to get into business from the day of assuming power. But in case of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao, it appears the time has not yet started for the implementation of its poll promises.

Apparently, KCR seems to be under the impression that he is only continuing his earlier stint and his second term has not yet commenced.Going by the statement of KCR in the assembly the other day, all his promises would be implemented with effect from the next financial year, that is, April 1. It means, the second term of KCR will commence from April 1.

And the period between December 13, when he took charge as the chief minister and March 31, would not be part of KCR’s new regime.“This is ridiculous. How can the commencement of a new regime be linked to a financial year? KCR has made several promises before elections and he is expected to implement them soon after coming to power, with effect from December 13,” PCC spokesman Syed Nizamuddin said.

He pointed out that in a democratic form of government, the ruling party gets only five years to deliver on its promises. It is nowhere linked to financial year or calendar year.“When people have voted for TRS on the promise that their Aasra pension amount will get doubled, they expected it from December 11 onwards when results were declared. Therefore, KCR Government cannot deprive the beneficiaries the enhanced amount for six months citing Financial Year,” he said.

The talk of appointing new Governors for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ahead of the ensuing general elections as once again making rounds in the media circles for the last few hours.

According to the latest reports, the Centre has decided to replace E S L Narasimhan, who has been functioning as Governor of Telangana and Andhra since bifurcation. Now, the Centre wants to appoint two separate Governors both the states.

The reports said retired IPS officer and present Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry Kiran Bedi is likely to be appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Having been cherry-picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she has been giving a tough time to the Congress government in Pondicherry by interfering in the administration.

If Bedi is appointed as the Andhra Pradesh Governor, she will definitely create troubles for Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been going all out against the Modi government at the Centre.

Especially before the elections, she might create hurdles in the passage of certain crucial bills coming up in the next budget session.

In fact, the name of Kiran Bedi cropped up six months ago, soon after Naidu broke away from the BJP. But somehow, the Centre preferred to continue with Narasimhan.

Now, the question is who the next Governor of Telangana would be. It is not clear whether the Centre would continue with Narasimhan for some more time or appoint a new one.

Sometime back, there was a talk that the Centre might consider the name of retired IAS officer C V S K Sarma, who was the special chief secretary during the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and Kiran Kumar Reddy regimes.

Now, his name is not in the reckoning. The RSS is said to have suggested a couple of other names for the post, sources added.

Telangana BJP leader and three-term MLA from Amberpet constituency in Hyderabad, G Kishan Reddy has landed in EVM hacking controversy.Syed Shuja, the self-proclaimed cyber expert taking political asylum in US, made shocking allegations saying that EVMs were hacked during 2014 elections, due to which BJP could win Lok Sabha polls. He claimed that Kishan Reddy was aware of EVM hacking.

Syed, during the press conference in London said that he was part of a team at the public sector ECIL, which designed and manufactured the EVMs.Syed said that his team had Prakash, Keshav, Vamshi, Amjas as members. He said he fled to US from India in May 2014 during Lok Sabha polls as some of his team members were murdered in Hyderabad on the directions of Kishan Reddy.

Syed alleged that Kishan Reddy ordered his three gunmen to shoot his teammates in Hyderabad in 2014 after the polling and the results were yet to be declared.Syed said he along with his team members had gone to meet Kishan Reddy to talk about hacking and rigging EVMs.

Syed alleged that Kishan’s brother-in-law Kamal had arranged this meeting in Uppal.Syed claimed that BJP created communal rites in city in May 2014 in which few people died in the police firing and these communal rites were staged by Kishan Reddy to show that the murders committed by his gunmen were those who were killed in police firing.

However, Kishan Reddy strongly denied these charges levelled by Syed.

“A man named Syed Shuja made allegation against me in London that my friends and myself killed 11 people in Hydeabad. It was Congress governments then in State and the Centre. Your officers were working at that time. How could I kill 11 people over tampering issue?” Kishan Reddy asked.Attacking the Congress party for unnecessarily dragging his name in this issue, Kishan Reddy said if he could hack the EVMs, he would have been Telangana CM today.

Kishan Reddy lost recent Assembly polls from Amberpet seat in the hands of TRS.

It’s official! Putting an end to speculation of her entry, Priyanka Gandhi has been appointed as the in-charge of poll preparations for Uttar Pradesh. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has made the announcement with an objective to give a tough fight to the state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

As the poll in-charge for UP East – Priyanka will nurse these crucial constituencies – Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Amethi, Raebarelli and Allahabad – among others. What this means is that she will also be challenging the BJP in PM Narendra Modi’s home constituency of Varanasi. Priyanka has been working at the back-end until now in Amethi and Raebarelli. “Now she will be taking over the reins in Uttar Pradesh, which not only augurs well for UP but also for India,” said Congress leaders.

Her entry could also be a direct challenge to Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s partnership, making it a triangular contest within the allies of the anti-BJP front. Interestingly, Prashant Kishor, the vice-president of JD(U), who has also been a poll strategist for Narendra Modi earlier, tweeted: “One of the most awaited entries in Indian politics is finally here! While people may debate the timing, exact role and position, to me, the real news is that she finally decided to take the plunge! Congratulations and best wishes to Priyanka Gandhi.”

After making the announcement, Rahul Gandhi said that they will together give a new direction to the politics of UP. “I am very happy that my sister, who is extremely capable and hard-working, will work with me,” he added. Apparently, the Congress High Command is making arrangements to facilitate the entry of the second Gandhi scion into the party from the first week of February.

Commenting on Priyanka’s entry, the BJP was quick to state that Priyanka’s entry is an indication of Rahul Gandhi’s failure to deliver. With the election pitch rising everyday, this surely came as a surprise from the Congress. So, will Priyanka be capable of reviving the Congress from the brink & run it like her grandmother Indira? Only time will tell.