The sudden decision of senior Rayalaseema leader and former MLA Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy to join the Congress party shows his desperation to find a new lease of life in politics.Byreddy joined the Congress party in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday.

APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy, Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy, Dr K V P Ramachandra Rao and other leaders were present.He told media on Sunday that he had joined the Congress party as he believed that it was the only party which could give special category status to Andhra Pradesh.He said would strive to ensure that the party would win as many seats as possible in the next elections.

Byreddy attacked the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress party had miserably failed to work for the aspirations of the people in their fight for political one-upmanship.“They are power hungry and are not interested in the welfare of the people,” he alleged.

After winding up his Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samithi last year, the two-time MLA from Nandikotkur has been struggling to stage a comeback into active politics.In the Nandyal by-elections last year, he fielded his follower to contest, but the latter could not get even a few hundred votes.

He made a desperate bid to rejoin the TDP and even called on TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the latter’s residence at Vundavalli in Amaravati a few months ago.Byreddy even told media later that Naidu had received him well and invited him to join the TDP. He even forced his follower to withdraw his nomination against the TDP candidate K E Prabhakar in the MLC elections.

But subsequently, he did not get any favourable assurance from the TDP on the position he would get in the party. So, he has been keeping away and now, he has taken a sudden decision to join the Congress.“May be, he thought the Congress will be able to get back its lost glory at least partially and he might get some recognition there,” a Kurnool leader said.

Right from the beginning, farmers of two villages – Vundavalli and Penumaka, closer to the Chennai-Vijayawada national highway have been resisting the land acquisition by the Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu for the construction of Amaravati.

Though the government managed to acquire more than 34,000 acres of land from farmers in several villages for Amaravati under land pooling system, it has not been able to convince the farmers of these two villages who are agitating against the move under the leadership of local MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy of YSR Congress party.

The government had to invoke Land Acquisition Act, 2013 to acquire land and offered compensation as per the norms, but farmers are not yielding and demanding high compensation as they are closer to the highway and their market value runs into several crores of rupees. Having no option, the authorities have served land acquisition notices.

Right from the beginning, it was the YSR Congress party which has been stalling the land acquisition process. Now, it appears Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan is trying to hijack the agitation from YSRC.On Sunday, Pawan visited Vundavalli village and tried to champion the cause of farmers. Some Pawan Kalyan fans among the local farmers complained to him against the forcible land acquisition process by the government.

“We have voted for the TDP in the last elections, only because you campaigned for it. Now, you take the lead in fighting against the state government,” a farmer told him.The Jana Sena Party chief said he would be available to them within a calling distance and was ready to fight for them.“You continue the agitation. If the government tries to use the force, I will be the first person to face the bullet,” he said.

Pawan said the government was acquiring more land than what was required for the capital.“No government will survive if it does injustice to the farmers. Any land acquisition should be done only with the consent of farmers. The government should give up its hunger for more land,” he said.

Political analysts are surprised as to why Chandrababu Naidu did not designate TDP Amalapuram MP Pandula Ravindra Babu as one of the speakers during the no-confidence motion in Parliament.Ravindra Babu apparently has a good understanding of Parliamentary Affairs, the Constitution and also the problems plaguing Andhra Pradesh. There could be two possible reasons for this:

One, Ravindra Babu was shamed by the national media when he had commented in the past that people join the army only for free liquor and meat. Hence, the BJP could have easily countered any statements of his by bringing up this remark once again.Second is his caste. Since Ravindra Babu is a Dalit, Naidu would not have wanted him to overshadow Galla Jaydev or for that matter, Ram Mohan Naidu whose family is loyal to the TDP.

Instead, it was two Kammas Jayadev and Kesineni Nani and one Velama Ram Mohan Naidu, who spoke. Only Chandrababu Naidu knows the answer to this.