The mega public meeting held by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi at Kongara Kalan village on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday was a disappointment not only for the political observers and the media, but even for the TRS leadership.Though for the public consumption, the TRS leaders are saying the meeting was a grand success with an unprecedented turnout, they are not claiming, as they had gone it before the meeting, that the turnout was 25 lakh.

They are now saying the party leadership is extremely happy with the mobilisation of crowds.But, reliable sources in the TRS say party president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was not at all happy with the crowd mobilisation and called for constituency-wise reports on the same from the party leaders.The intelligence sources reportedly told KCR that the total turnout at the Kongara Kalan meeting, including those who were stuck up on the outer ring road and elsewhere, was not more than five to six lakh.

Preliminary reports indicated that in many constituencies, the local TRS leaders did not evince interest in mobilising the crowds as they had realised they would not get the party tickets for the next elections.This is because KCR has already indicated that except three or four MLAs, all the sitting MLAs would be retained for the coming elections and he would announce the list in September last week.This has taken the steam out of the ticket aspirants and they thought it would be waste of money to mobilise the crowds.

Even the sitting MLAs have taken it easy as they are now sure of their tickets; so, there is no point in pleasing the party leadership.“Had the KCR not announced that all the sitting MLAs would be retained, there would have been competition among the ticket aspirants within the constituency and hence, they would spent money to bring crowds to the meeting to get into the good books of KCR,” a party leader said.

At last, after 11 years of painful wait, the victims and family members of the 42 people who lost their lives in the 2007 twin Hyderabad bomb blasts finally got justice. The National Investigative Agency (NIA) special court in Hyderabad today found two people guilty out of the five accused. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on next Monday.

At 7:45 pm on August 25, 2007, two blasts at the iconic Gokul Chat Bhandar and the Lumbini Park took the lives of 32 and 10 people respectively. More than 50 people were injured in the twin blasts. An unexploded bomb was recovered from a busy area in Dilsukhnagar.

The NIA special court convicted Aneeq Shafiq Sayeed and Ismail Chaudhary, who planted the bombs at Lumbini Park and Dilsukhnagar respectively. Another chief accused, Riyaz Bhatkal, alleged founder of Indian Mujahideen that carried out the blasts, planted the bomb at the Gokul Chat Bhandar. Riyaz immediately escaped to Pakistan with ISI’s help.

In October 2008, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested Aneeq Shafiq Sayeed, Ismail Chaudhary, Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash, Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik and Tariq Anjum. The accused, who are lodged at the Cherlapally Central Jail were produced in front of the court via a video conference. The court today acquitted Farooq and Sadiq. Verdict on Tariq’s involvement in the blasts will be out on Monday.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has put the entire opposition on tenterhooks again. Though he disappointed all by not announcing the dissolution of the state Assembly as anticipated by the opposition and also the media in public meeting held on Sunday, the entire political circles in Telangana are eagerly waiting to see the TRS supremo’s next political move.

The entire state administration is already gearing up towards early elections. On the instructions of KCR, all the departments are busy finalising the proposals to be placed in the next cabinet meeting to be held in September first week most in 6 th of this month.

The MLAs of all political parties are also requested to forward the proposals for sanction of new works and also the release of funds immediately. Given the present circumstances, leaders said KCR has made up his mind to dissolve the Assembly before September 10 and request the Election Commission to go for early elections.

KCR is of the strong view that TRS will win hands-down if he goes for early elections. After the assembly elections in the poll bound Rajastan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Mexican, the TRS chief is predicting the entire political situation in the country will change as the winning prospects of Congress is ample. If he fight elections in April, the poll results in four states will affect his winning prospects.

Leaders said KCR decided for early elections but the CM is mulling several options before dissolving the assembly. Opposition leaders said openly the Pragati Nivedana Sabha was a big flop but they are ascertaining the political situation and studying KCR political strategy internally.

The entry of former minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy into the YSR Congress party a couple of days ago is understood to have created ripples within the party in Nellore district.Though Anam thought of joining the YSRC with a big show of his followers, he had to put up with a low key programme and he had to join in the presence of YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy during the course of the latter’s padayatra at Madugula in Visakhapatnam district.

That Anam’s entry did not create any enthusiasm in the party’s Nellore district unit was evident from the absence of Mekapati family at his joining programme.Nellore MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and his son and Atmakur MLA Mekapati Gautam Reddy did not turn up despite a message from Jagan.They stayed back in the district, planning their future course of action in the event of Anam getting a crucial position in the party.

At the same time, former chief minister Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy’s son N Ramkumar Reddy is making preparations for the entry into the YSRC on September 7.He has already staked claim for the party ticket for Venkatagiri assembly constituency, which was represented by his mother N Rajya Lakshmi in the past. Unlike Anam, Ramkumar is going to put up big show of strength before joining the party only to show his potential, sources said.

Now with sitting MLA Mekapati Gautam Reddy refusing to move out of Atmakur and Ramkumar Reddy claiming the Venkatagiri seat, Anam is left with no choice.If Jagan wants to drop either Gautam or Ramkumar, it would result in a crisis in the party in Nellore district, say sources.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the most controversial decision of his government – demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes on November 8, 2016, it was Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu who was in the forefront in supporting it.

In fact, Naidu went on to claim then that it was he who had suggested to Modi to ban high value currency so as to prevent black money.He was even appointed as convenor of the committee constituted by the Centre on promoting digital economy and he went on propagating people not to indulge in cash transactions but go in for digital currency.Now that he has come out of the NDA and has turned a bitter critic of Modi, the TDP president has taken a complete U-turn on demonetisation and digital currency.

At a press conference held at Amaravati on Monday, Naidu went hammer and tongs at Modi for miserably failing on the economic front.Naidu wondered what Modi had achieved by going in for demonetisation.“Every citizen of the country has suffered a lot due to demonetisation. Even now, liquid cash is not available and people are not able to draw money from ATMs,” he said.

He claimed that he had suggested banning of currency of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denomination and printing of more Rs 200 and Rs 100 notes so as to help the common man, besides recommending digital currency for higher transactions.

“But the NDA government had done exactly opposite to what I had suggested as the convenor of digital economy. I demand that the Modi government ban Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes at least now and make smaller currency available for the people,” he said.

He alleged that the economy had collapsed in the last two years of Modi regime.

“The growth rate has fallen. People have lost faith in the banks, as the non-performance assets went up abnormally. The deposits in the accounts of Swiss Banks have gone up. There is no financial discipline in the country now,” Naidu said.