The Telangana Congress party has kick-started its campaign for the ensuing state assembly elections from the famous Jogulamba temple at Alampur in Gadwal district, contrary to its traditional sentiment of Chevella in Vikarabad district.PCC president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy and all the senior Congress leaders, led by former minister from Gadwal D K Aruna, performed pujas at Jogulamba temple before addressing a massive public meeting at Gadwal.

Considered to be a Shakthi Peetham, the Jogulamba temple is a powerful place to commence any activity. Since it has a perfect vasthu, people believe that it would fetch good results to whoever starts their campaign here. That is why, the PCC leaders have chosen this temple to start their electioneering.

However, this is in sharp deviation from the earlier sentiments of the Congress party. Former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy had a strong sentiment for Chevella town. Whenever he wanted to launch a new programme, whether it was Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) or free power supply scheme, he used to do it only in Chevella.

He began his marathon and historic padayatra only from Chevella in 2003 and that brought him to power in 2004. His election campaign in 2004 and 2009 was also from Chevella. He used to call former home minister Sabita Indra Reddy as Chevella Chellamma.

But after the untimely demise of YSR in 2009 and the defeat of the Congress party in 2014 elections despite launching the campaign at Chevella, this sentiment seems to have subsided. The Congress leaders felt that the Chevella sentiment might have worked out for YSR but it may not be the case with all the other Congress leaders.

Though Telangana PCC president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy launched his bus yatra from Chevella on February 26, he had to shift the first election campaign meeting to Jogulamba hoping that the new sentiment will fetch good results in the coming elections.

Political criticism in Telangana has crossed all limits of decency. When chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself has set a new trend in abusing the political rivals in a filthy language, it is nothing but natural that the rivals also use the same language to attack him.

Words like “Uccha poyadam” (pissing), Chembadka povadam (shitting) and Sanka Naakadam (Licking the arm pit) have come from the mouth of KCR in his last two public speeches, apart from regular abuses like “Durmargugu and Rakshasudu” and curses like “Thoo. Neeyavva, Mee Bathuku Cheda, Meeru Nasanamai Ponu,” which evoked loud cheers from the TRS workers.

Though Congress leaders have not resorted to such wild abusing of KCR, they, too, have used strong words.

Addressing the first public meeting of the party at Jogulamba Gadwal, PCC president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy strongly defended his remarks calling KCR a ‘batte baaz’ (cheater).

He said in Hyderabadi dialect a habitual liar and cheater is called a ‘batte baaz’ and the term perfectly fits for KCR as he has cheated all sections of the society during his four-and-a-half year regime.

“Not a single electoral promise has been fulfilled by KCR. Poor Dalits did not get three acres of land; Homeless people were not given double bed room houses; Promise of 12% quota for STs and Muslims remained unfulfilled; One job for every household proved to be a mirage and all other promises made by KCR proved hollow and fake. In fact, KCR is not only a batte baaz but also a dhokay baaz,” he said.

Accusing KCR of shattering the aspirations and hopes of people of Telangana from the new State, the TPCC Chief alleged that KCR and his family had lived a lavish lifestyle using public money.

“While poor people lived without a shelter, KCR constructed a palatial bungalow ‘Pragati Bhavan’ for himself on 9 acres of land by spending Rs. 500 crore of public money. Many people lost their lives after they were forced to travel in old RTC buses.

But KCR got a huge fleet of luxurious cars and a Rs. 7 crore Mercedez Benz bus for personal travel. KCR preferred to stay in his bullet-proof bathroom in Pragathi Bhavan than meeting common people in State Secretariat,” he said while adding that KCR would be remembered in history for his lies, laziness and lethargic attitude towards people.

If Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has his way, Kidari Sravan Kumar, son of slain Araku MLA Kidari Sarveshwar Rao, will be inducted into the state cabinet soon.Soon after returning his from US trip, Naidu went straight to Araku to call on the family members of Sarveshwar Rao and ex-MLA Soma, who were shot dead by the Maoists in the last week of September. He promised to take care of the interests of children of both the families.

Particularly, Naidu was learnt to be very much impressed by Sravan, an engineering graduate from IIT.
He discussed with his senior colleagues and proposed that the young man could be taken into the cabinet and groomed into a politician.This would not only send positive signals among the tribals, who were agitated over the inaction of the police in providing security to the slain MLA, but also secure support from the youth.

In any case, Naidu has been contemplating undertaking a minor expansion of the cabinet.He could have done it last month itself but deferred it due to sudden demise of his brother-in-law and TDP politburo member Nandamuri Harikrishna. After that, there were no good days for expansion of cabinet.Now, reports from the power corridors indicate that Naidu might expand the cabinet during Dasara festivities.

He was planning to take a minority and now, he can induct a tribal into the cabinet. Though Sravan is neither an MLA nor an MLC, he can continue as a minister for another six months.In any case, there would be elections in the next six months and in the meantime, there would be MLC elections in February/March.

Sravan can be made an MLC or can be fielded directly as an MLA from Araku in place of his father.

The cold war brewing in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi for quite some seems to have subsided, albeit for the time being, thanks to the intervention of party president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.After a long time, KCR’s nephew and state irrigation minister T Harish Rao made an appearance at Pragathi Bhavan, the official residence-cum-camp office of the chief minister, on Thursday.He attended a meeting of party workers from Siricilla constituency represented by KCR’s son and IT minister K T Rama Rao.

Both KTR and Harish Rao sought to create an impression that there were absolutely no differences between them.And both of them competed with each other scratching each other’s back, praising the leadership of each other.“We have grown up together as brothers in the same house since 1991. We have been competing with each other only in terms of development. We have absolutely no differences between us,” KTR said.He praised Harish a lot in executing the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme as per the directions of the chief minister.

“As long as Harish Rao is the irrigation ministry, all the projects will be going on at a high speed. All the other ministers are not able to catch up with his speed,” KTR said.On the other hand, Harish Rao said Siricilla, which was once known for suicides by weavers, is now a developed textile township.

“In the last four years, it has developed by leaps and bounds and all the credit goes to KTR. It took three decades for Siddipet to develop into a modern town, but Siricilla could catch up with the development in just four years, thanks to KTR,” he said.

It was really a pleasant surprise to the TRS workers to see both KTR and Harish Rao together and patting each other’s back.Till recently, both of them did not see eye to eye and it was an open secret that Harish Rao was going through a tough period in the TRS as he was completely sidelined.Even instructions were given to KCR’s media entities – Namasthe Telangana Telugu daily, Telangana Today English daily and T-News channel to stop carrying any kind of news pertaining to Harish Rao.

Except in local tabloid editions, Harish Rao was nowhere to be seen in the TRS media till recently.

Apparently realising that Harish Rao has all the potential to damage the TRS prospects in the coming elections, KCR seems to have brought about a patch up between the two leaders and asked them not to give any impression about the differences within the family at least till the elections.

The Telugu Desam Party is not averse to joining the Congress party-led alliance government at the Centre, if such a situation arises, after the 2019 general elections.

This was indicated by Naidu at the party’s coordination committee meeting held at Amaravati on Wednesday.

He gave a lot of clarity to the party leaders as to what the TDP would have to do after 2019 elections.

Disclosing his strategy to the party leaders, Naidu said the TDP would support the Congress party at Centre to form government either directly through alliance or extending an indirect support from outside.

He told the party leaders that the Congress party should not be treated as an enemy of the TDP anymore, as it was not a major force to reckon with.

“The people had already given a punishment to the Congress party for dividing the state. And they have now realized that the Bharatiya Janata Party is more dangerous than the Congress, as it has not only failed to implement the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act, but also deliberately stalling development in the state by denying funds due to us,” he said.

So, for the TDP, the BJP is a bigger enemy at the national level.

“Under any circumstances, we have to ensure that the BJP will not come to power at the Centre again. Since the Congress has little chances of regaining its strength for at least another two decades, we don’t have to worry about it. Instead, we can make use of its support to counter the BJP,” he said.

He said it was for the same reason the TDP had entered into an alliance with the Congress in Telangana Assembly elections.

“We should utilise all opportunities to defeat the BJP,” he said.