Former minister and senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader Gaddam Vinod and his brother G Vivek have finally decided to stay back in the party, thanks to the intervention of TRS president and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

KCR on Wednesday called Vinod and greeted him on Diwali. He reportedly assured that Vinod would be made MLC once the TRS returns to power in December. At the same time, he also promised to give him some prominent position in the party.

Vivek, who was intensely lobbying for Chennur assembly seat, was forced to agree, as KCR said party candidate Balka Suman was already in the thick of election campaign and it won’t be proper to change the candidate at this stage.

He has already promised to field his brother Vivek in Peddapalli parliamentary constituency in 2019 elections.

As a result, the Gaddam brothers softened their stand and agreed to take part in the TRS campaign in Chennur and Peddapalli constituencies.

The TRS chief is so keen on retaining the Gaddam brothers because they are cash rich with a lot of influence in the Mala community.

Moreover, Vivek has a powerful media house in his hands. So, KCR did not want to take any chances.

In fact, changing parties is not uncommon for the Gaddam brothers, who were with the Congress party for a long time, along with their father late G Venkatswamy.

After the Telangana Rashtra Samithi came to power in 2014, both of them joined the ruling party hoping that they would get good positions. But it did not happen and within no time, they were back in the Congress party.

Subsequently, they resigned from the Congress and returned to the TRS again. And now, they wanted to stage a comeback to the Congress, but KCR stopped them!

The seat distribution among the alliance partners of Maha Kootami seems to be an unending saga.

Even as the heat is gradually building up in Telangana with elections just a month away, there is still suspense over the survival of Maha Kootami even before it takes the birth.

While the three alliance partners – the Telugu Desam Party, the Telangana Jana Sena and the Communist Party of India are still bargaining for more seats and good constituencies, the Congress party itself is struggling to finalise its own list due to hectic lobbying by the party ticket aspirants.

While there is not much problem with the candidates in 57 assembly segments, it is facing difficulty in finalising the candidates for the remaining constituencies.

There are more than two candidates lobbying for each seat, but the high command is looking for candidates with strong political, economic and social back ground which helps to win in the ensuing elections.

On Wednesday, the Central Screening Committee of the Congress party met again in Delhi to finalize the candidates.

The aspirants are camping in New Delhi to lobby for themselves and see that their names are included in the list. Needless to say, money bags and high level connections are playing a key role in finalising the names.

If the reports from New Delhi are any indication, the list will not be finalised for another two days. The suspense continues over the Maha Kootami episode!

Washington: The White House has withdrawn the permanent credential from CNN journalist Jim Acosta for confronting US President Donald Trump at a press conference following the mid-term results.

The CNN journalist at the White House on Wednesday engaged in a tense tug-of-war with Trump, who after answering several of his questions, said “That’s enough. Put down the mic… I tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself, having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person.”

A White House aide immediately approached Acosta and unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from him, Efe news reported.

Hours later White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tweeted: “As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.”

Acosta was asked by an agent of the US Secret Service for his accreditation after leaving the presidential building, according to a video of the moment shared by the journalist on Twitter.

“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his administration.

“We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable,” is, however, the explanation given by Sanders.

“The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it’s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this administration,” she said in a statement.

In response, Acosta said, “This is a lie.”

The permanent credential allows a select group of journalists to freely enter and leave the White House and cover the president’s day-to-day life.

The incident that triggered the White House decision on Acosta had occurred during the press conference in which Trump assessed the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has become a subject of attack in Telangana, after joining hands with the Congress party to be part of the grand alliance to fight against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

TRS leader and IT minister K T Rama Rao on Tuesday described Naidu as an adopted son of the Congress party.

And after Naidu shook hands with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the Telangana Congress leaders are making a beeline before him for seat sharing, he criticised.

“When I said the Telangana state had become a reality only because of the relentless fight by the oppressed sections and not due to the mercy of any mother or a doll (amma kaadu, bomma kaadu), the Congress leaders went hammer and tongs at me. But the same party leaders have shamelessly joined hands with Naidu, who had described Sonia Gandhi as a devil and Godse on the part of Andhra people. The TDP president has now become an adopted son of the Congress party,” KTR criticised, while speaking to media at Siricilla.

He denied the reports that his father TRS president KCR is going to contest from one more constituency and made it clear that he will only contest from Gajwel.

“There will be no silent revolution in favour of the Maha Kootami as being projected by the opposition. There will be resounding revolution in favour of the TRS on December 11,” KTR said.

He said heavens would not fall with the campaigning of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia in the state. He expressed confidence that its turn of TRS after the announcement of alliance candidates.