All India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi has been displaying a highly energetic and aggressive posture, but his party in Andhra Pradesh appears to be weak and lacks the energy to retain its identity, let alone coming to power.

Those who watched Rahul climbing up the seven hills of Tirumala with a lot of pace and ease wondered whether he would infuse the same kind of energy into the party in Andhra Pradesh, which has completely lost its base.

Rahul trekked the seven hills on foot in just around three hours to reach Tirumala the abode of Lord Venkateswara.

He started off his walk from Alipiri at about 11.30 in the morning and climbed the steep steps so briskly that his security persons and other party leaders just could not match him in the pace.

Even his nephew Raihan Vadra, son of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who accompanied Rahul, had lost the race with his maternal uncle.

He was seen frequently gulping the water, as Rahul stopped here and there to greet pilgrims who were going on the pedestrian path to Tirumala.

The security personnel had a tough time all along the footpath route to restrain the pilgrims trekking the hills who are eager to come close with Rahul to greet him.

Earlier Rahul arrived from Delhi by a special flight and immediately drove straight to Alipiri, the foot of the hills to go to Tirumala on foot.

Senior leaders including state party in-charge Oomen Chandy, senior Congress leaders Chinta Mohan, former CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy, PCC president Raghuveera Reddy and a host of others reached Tirumala by road after seeing off Rahul at Alipiri.

Elaborate security arrangements were made all the pedestrian path to Tirumala, Tirupati and also, at the airport in view Congress party president visit to the pilgrim city to participate in the party programme to reassure it’s the commitment to special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

As Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao came under attack for not inducting a woman member into the cabinet, his daughter and Telangana Rashtra Samiti Lok Sabha member K Kavitha said Friday she can’t influence her father to do so.

Senior BJP leader in Telangana G Kishan Reddy recently hit out at Rao for not inducting women members in his recently expanded Cabinet and sought registration of a case against him.

The Chief Minister, who assumed charge on December 13 for the second time after TRS returned to power, has come under criticism for not giving representation to women in the Cabinet, which was expanded on Tuesday with induction of ten members.

In his first term Cabinet also, none of the women members secured a berth.

During an interaction at the Indian School of Business here, Kavitha said no political party, including the TRS, gave “equal space” to women in politics.This issue would get addressed only if it’s mandated by Parliament or the Election Commission, she opined. Kavitha said of the total of 85-plus TRS MLAs, only four were women.

“I would never shy away and today I again reiterate that no party — it could be TRS, it could be Congress, it could be BJP, whichever party, it will not give equal space to women unless and until it is mandated by the Election Commission of India or the Parliament, she said.

“If you talk about me wielding my power around my father (to induct a woman into the Council of Ministers), I don’t think that’s how it works in politics”, the lone TRS woman Lok Sabha member said.
Kavitha said she was a “very junior” member of the party and influencing her father, a leader with 40 years of experience, “is not going to work.”

“Trust me on that and especially for women, it has to be mandated….I never shied away from saying this because TRS is no different from any other party”, she said.Kavitha also said she does not hope that the Women’s reservation bill, which is pending in Parliament, would be passed in the near future.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao nominated four candidates for the MLC polls and offered the fifth one to ally MIM, seeking to oust the Congress from the Council. The TRS needs eight MLAs to pull it off.

Going by their current strengths, the TRS could win four of the MLC seats in the March 12 election, and the Congress the fifth one with the support of the TD. Asking the MIM to contest from the fifth seat will force a contest.

If the Congress loses, it will be wiped out from the Council. There has been no TD member in the Council since 2015.

Mr Rao nominated home minister Mohd Mahmood Ali; Mr E. Mallesham and Mr S. Subhash Reddy, who were active in the statehood agitation; and former MLA Satyavathi Rathore, who was denied a ticket in the 2018 polls.

The MIM is yet to nominate its candidate.

The TDP government led by CM N Chandrababu Naidu in AP is already facing severe allegations of looting thousands of crores of public money in the name of construction of new capital city Amaravathi.Adding credence to these allegations, Naidu has now issued orders exempting “Amaravathi issues” from the purview of Right to Information (RTI) Act.

This is to check attempts of common people, social organisations and other concerned citizens to seek information under RTI Act on land acquisition, handing over of valuable lands in Amaravathi for Singapore companies and other private companies/ individuals, MoUs entered with various firms and individuals for construction of Amaravathi city.

This is seen as a clever ploy by Naidu to cover up scams and looting of public money by TDP leaders in the name of Amaravathi city.

Interestingly, Naidu himself is heading the CRDA (Capital Region Development Authority), which has been entrusted the job of construction of Amaravathi.

Naidu has handed over 1,691 acres to few Singapore private companies. They were allowed to develop plots and ventures and sell them on their own in return for construction of Amaravathi.

Naidu has set up Amaravathi Development Partners Pvt Ltd for the purpose, which is entering into MoUs with Singapore private firms.

Naidu has issued orders not to disclose these MoUs under RTI leading to allegations that TDP government was trying to cover up scams.

Concerned citizens who are approaching CRDA for information under RTI are denied details saying that Amaravathi MoUs are ‘top secret and highly confidential’ and does not fall under the purview of RTI Act.

Citizens question if there were no scams, where was the need for Naidu to hide information and bringing Amaravathi out of RTI Act.