The Congress would not name the chief ministerial candidate in poll-bound Telangana, where it would fight the Assembly elections jointly with the Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India and Telangana Jana Samithi, a key party leader said today.The Congress in-charge of Telangana, RC Khuntia maintained that the usual practice in the Congress was not to name the party’s chief ministerial candidate before any Assembly election.

“TPCC (Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee) President, Uttam Kumar Reddy will lead the campaign but the chief ministerial candidate will be finalised after the election,” Mr Khuntia told news agency PTI in Hyderabad.”It will be decided after the election results come out, with the views of MLAs, in consultation with our party president Rahul Gandhi”, he said.

The Telangana Assembly was dissolved on September 6 — more than eight months ahead of the expiry of its term — on the recommendation of (now) caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who opted to go for early elections.

The Election Commission is yet to come out with the poll schedule for the state.The Congress which won 21 seats in the 119-member Assembly in the 2014 elections with a vote share of more than 25 per cent, has since struck an understanding with the TDP, the CPI and TJS of Prof M Kodandaram to fight the election jointly.”Seat sharing details have not been finalised but we have agreed to fight jointly,” Mr Khuntia said. “We will have a common agenda, and also some strategy to campaign jointly,” he added.

According to Mr Khuntia, the winning factor of the alliance partners would decide as to who would get how many seats to contest.”It’s not the question of numbers; it’s a question of winnability”, he said, adding, while the Congress is the major partner, the three other parties would get “preference” in segments where they are in a better position.

The TDP fought the last election in alliance with the BJP, won 15 seats and had a close to 15 per cent vote-share.

Notwithstanding the criticism from various quarters including economists and the opposition parties over the floating of “Amaravati Bonds” for Rs 2,000 crore last month amidst a lot of hype and publicity, Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is planning to go in for more public borrowings.

According to the latest reports, the Naidu government is planning to raise another Rs 500 crore through “public issue” of Amaravati bonds. This is apart from, raising of Rs.2000 cr raised by issuing “capital bonds” on BSE last month.
This is first of its kind in India, where state government is raising amount via “public issue” where individuals can bid for Amaravati shares.

The public issue would be raised in one or more tranches together not exceeding Rs 500 crore.The government called for request for quotation (RFQ) from various agencies to be appointed as lead managers who would mobilise funds from public.The pre-bid qualification would be assessed by September 25 and the last date for bidding is October 5. The tenure of the bonds is three to 15 years.

The interest rate and other details would be revealed once the lead managers are appointed, official sources said.

More than three years after the major tragedy at Godavari pushkarams in Rajahmundry in which 27 people died in a stampede, a judicial commission gave a clean chit to Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.The commission, in its report which was tabled in the Andhra assembly on Wednesday, declared that Naidu was no way responsible for the stampede.

“It was wrong that the stampede had occurred as the police had closed the gates of the ghat to enable Naidu to perform puja along with his family. The incident happened after Naidu left the spot,” the commission felt.What is worse, the commission blamed it on the media for giving too much publicity to the auspicious muhurtham for performing the holy bath.

“This has resulted in lakhs of people coming at the same time. Since the pathway was too narrow, it resulted in the stampede,” the commission felt.Though nobody would expect that the commission would hold Naidu responsible for the tragedy of July 15, 2015, it was at least expected to point out the lapses on the part of administration to make proper arrangements.

Those who witnessed the tragedy clearly told the media that the police were engaged in the services of Naidu, throwing the safety of lakhs of pilgrims to the winds.Everybody reported that the crowds could not enter the ghat because of Naidu’s pujas and also the shooting being done on him while he was performing the puja. It resulted in the stampede at the VIP entrance.

Even national media reported that Naidu wasn’t willing to forego the massive publicity that would accompany his own participation in the mega festival.“The policemen were totally inexperienced in crowd management and they were lacking instructions from the top cops who were fawning over the Chief Minister and other VIPs,” the report said.

Yet, the commission chose to blame the media for highlighting the muhurtam!

San Francisco: Defending the high cost consumers would have to pay to own the most expensive iPhone released this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the device is worth the cost as it replaces many other gadgets one might need, a media report said.

Apple’s newest line of iPhones — the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max — cost as much as $1,449 for the most expensive model, CNBC reported late on Tuesday.

“The phone has replaced your digital camera. You don’t have a separate one anymore. It’s replaced your video camera. It’s replaced your music player. It’s replaced all of these different devices,” Cook was quoted as saying to ABC’s “Good Morning America”.

“And so arguably the product is really important. And we’ve found that people want to have the most innovative product available and with that, it’s not cheap to do.”

In India, one would have to shell out Rs 12,075 a month as zero-cost EMI for a period of one year to own the 512GB variant of iPhone XS Max that will come for Rs 144,900 in India.

The iPhone XS with 512GB storage model will cost Rs 134,900 and the cheapest of the lot, the iPhone XR, has a starting price (64GB) of Rs 76,900 in India.

The brutal and cold-blooded murder of 24-yr-old Pranay on Sep 14 in broad daylight outside Jyothi Hospital, Miryalaguda in front of his own mother and pregnant wife Amrutha Varshini has sent shivers down the spine of many. This gruesome caste killing plot by Amrutha’s rich father Maruthi Rao is stressing the decreasing human values in society. And one major question that is on many lips is that how can a father hire supari killers on a contract to kill his own son-in-law when his very own daughter is carrying.

Now, here is the major reason that made Maruthi Rao to hire supari killers for contract of Rs 1 Crore to eliminate his son-in-law Pranay. Apparently, Maruthi Rao had tried all ways to break the couple, but in vain.

Initially, Maruthi Rao had lodged police complaint in Miryalaguda police station after coming to know about their marriage. However, police had then called the couple from Hyderabad and inquired about forceful marriage. But both have told police that they are majors and both have married with their own interest, love. Police had scolded Maruthi Rao and gave counseling to both families and informed Maruthi Rao not to disturb Amrutha.

But Maruthi Rao didn’t budge. He tried every possible way to break the couple’s relation. He even said to have offered money to Pranay and Pranay’s parents to leave his daughter. Meanwhile, Amrutha became pregnant. She too started talking to her mother and once in a while with her dad hoping that they would change.

To celebrate the joy in their family of expecting a child, Pranay’s parents and family have held a reception bash to Pranay and Amrutha. This said to have felt Maruthi Rao ashamed and insulted which made him decide to eliminate Pranay. Apparently, Maruthi Rao and his Supari gang had tried four times earlier to kill Pranay but failed. And finally on fateful day on Sep 14, 2018, they’ve brutally killed Pranay.

Rahul Gandhi says that if the Congress comes to power, the first thing he would do is to give SCS to Andhra Pradesh. But what guarantee is there of this fact?For something like this to happen, Congress needs an absolute majority which is highly unlikely. If it forms a coalition government, why on earth will its allies agree for SCS to be given to AP?

Will Kumaraswamy agree for SCS to Aandhra or will Stalin? Citing this problem from the allies, Congress can easily put the issue on the back burner once again.Rahul Gandhi is just saying whatever comes to his mouth because he is also probably aware that the Congress will not come to power in 2019.

Meanwhile, such promises can do him no harm and probably help resurrect his Party in Andhra Pradesh.Congress has nothing to lose in the present scenario and even winning one seat is a huge plus for them.

As for 2024, who knows what the world will be like then?