Recently, Pawan Kalyan held a private meeting with the top businessmen from his community at a hotel in Hyderabad. The meeting was for the purpose of getting funds for the Jana Sena Party.

Mahaa Murthy immediately seized in on the opportunity and tried to smear the reputation of Pawan Kalyan.He tried to project the meeting as a Kapu conclave and that Pawan was a casteist person.

His reporter on the spot came out with some details saying that the entry for the meeting was fixed at Rs 10 lakh and it was a very exclusive one in which only those with invitations could attend.

The reporter further added that the details of all the persons who came to the event were collected including their names, occupations, etc.

Now, here is the contradiction. If all the attendees were there on special invitation, why would their details be collected again? These are high-profile wealthy businessmen who do not walk up to a reception desk and give out their details like normal people.

Pawan Kalyan may have organized a meeting of wealthy businessmen from his community but everybody does that.

If two Kamma businessmen get together, it is for the welfare of the State and if two Kapu businessmen get together, it is casteism, according to Maha Murthy.

Besides, paying money to attend such conclaves is nothing new. What is Rs 10 lakh for these people?

Recently, Lokesh attended one such event in the US by paying for it and then claimed that he had been invited by the US President.

Every politician needs the support of his community and this doesn’t mean that he is casteist. Why did Maha Murthy not mention about the meeting of the Kamma businessmen at Ramoji Film City recently at which a strategy was chalked out to counter YS Jagan?

Why did Maha Murthy not mention the fact that Pawan Kalyan held a similar meeting in Bhimavaram which was exclusively for businessmen from the Kshatriya community and one in Visakhapatnam which was solely for Dalits?

This shows that Pawan is approaching all communities for support which is common in politics. But, when he met with his own community people, Maha News tried to portray him as a casteist person which is highly unfair. But then, that’s how the yellow media functions.

Once a popular Tollywood heroine-turned-firebrand political leader from Telangana and former MP Vijayashanti a.k.a Ramulamma might stage a return to Telangana Rashtra Samithi, if the reports doing rounds in a section of media circles are to be believed.

According to these reports, Vijayashanti was very much peeved with the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee for not involving in any of the party activities in the state, whether it was bus yatra or agitations or even regular meetings in Gandhi Bhavan.

Even during the recent visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Hyderabad, she was nowhere to be seen and she did not get the invitation even for the meeting with self-help group women held at Shamshabad.Though she had met Rahul Gandhi a few months ago, giving rise to the talk that she would make a return to active politics, nothing materialized later as the Telangana Congress leaders have been ignoring her.

Now with the election heat is building up across the state following the dissolution of the state assembly and announcement of early elections, the Telangana Congress has intensified its activity of selection of candidates and forging of alliances with other parties to form a grand alliance.

The Gandhi Bhavan has been buzzing with a lot of activity, but Vijayashanti is not visible anywhere.However, there was one statement from Vijayashanti in the last couple of days, opposing the Congress party’s alliance with the TDP.“The alliance will not help the Congress party in any manner, as the people will not accept this unholy pact,” she said.It is learnt she has started sending feelers to the TRS leadership through her old contacts like K Kesava Rao.

However, there has not been much response from TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao so far. May be, he will consider her admission into the TRS after the assembly elections, party sources said.

Once a popular Tollywood heroine-turned-firebrand political leader from Telangana and former MP Vijayashanti a.k.a Ramulamma might stage a return to Telangana Rashtra Samithi, if the reports doing rounds in a section of media circles are to be believed.

According to these reports, Vijayashanti was very much peeved with the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee for not involving in any of the party activities in the state, whether it was bus yatra or agitations or even regular meetings in Gandhi Bhavan.

Even during the recent visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Hyderabad, she was nowhere to be seen and she did not get the invitation even for the meeting with self-help group women held at Shamshabad.Though she had met Rahul Gandhi a few months ago, giving rise to the talk that she would make a return to active politics, nothing materialized later as the Telangana Congress leaders have been ignoring her.

Now with the election heat is building up across the state following the dissolution of the state assembly and announcement of early elections, the Telangana Congress has intensified its activity of selection of candidates and forging of alliances with other parties to form a grand alliance.

The Gandhi Bhavan has been buzzing with a lot of activity, but Vijayashanti is not visible anywhere.However, there was one statement from Vijayashanti in the last couple of days, opposing the Congress party’s alliance with the TDP.“The alliance will not help the Congress party in any manner, as the people will not accept this unholy pact,” she said.It is learnt she has started sending feelers to the TRS leadership through her old contacts like K Kesava Rao.

However, there has not been much response from TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao so far. May be, he will consider her admission into the TRS after the assembly elections, party sources said.

In a first, Nara Lokesh is going to speak at the World Economic Forum 2018 which is being held at Vietnam. Lokesh would be addressing the WEF for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on various key issues.

On Saturday night, Lokesh has left from Hyderabad to China to attend the WEF 2018. Lokesh will be interacting with the CEOs and top executives of various international corporate companies, other delegates. Lokesh is planning to invite them to invest in the state.

While Chandrababu Naidu would be regular at the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum, this time, Naidu’s son and IT & Panchayat Raj Minister Lokesh is attending the do. Hence, Lokesh’s first visit to the WEF is gaining a lot of political significance. Even Opposition YSRCP is closely observing and is preparing its attack on Lokesh.

As the common complaint on Lokesh is that he is not a great public speaker, one has to wait and see, what Lokesh would offer at the WEF and how would he overcome these criticism.

Looks like, Lokesh wants to come out of the shadow of Chandrababu and want to grow on his own. Meanwhile, Naidu is heading to the United States from 22nd September where he will be meeting the top American firms to seek investments in the Sun Rise State of Andhra Pradesh.

Almost three decades ago, as a young kid it was a moment etched in my memory to get a glimpse of the then Prime Minister of India – Rajiv Gandhi – standing on top of a building which was far away from the helipad prepared for the late Prime Minister’s chopper to land!

Years passed; Prime Ministers changed! While I adore leaders like P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the manner in which they led this great country; disliked leaders like V P Singh and Deve Gowda who I strongly feel had a negative impact on the future of India.

In 2004 when Rahul Gandhi became a Member of Parliament, likely many even I felt – here comes the future of India. This young, then 33-year-lad was being looked upon as the future Prime Minister who would put India on the path to greatness! After spending first term in learning, it was expected that Rahul Gandhi would take much aggressive stance in his approach. Elected to Parliament again in 2009, Rahul Gandhi showed great promise with his ‘Kalavati speech’ on the floor of Lok Sabha the same year. It was a great moment when Rahul Gandhi highlighted the plight of the widow and silenced the opposition who attempted a laugh.

After intense training from stalwarts of 150-year-old political outfit, Rahul Gandhi was expected to deliver miracles! But what followed was a huge disappointment! The scion of the grand old party of Indian politics failed miserably at each instance when he was expected to deliver.

Rahul Gandhi opted to stick to Party and not enter in order to strengthen the organization; he failed to stand up and take a Cabinet berth to show his ability to administer; biggest disaster came in when he opposed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s decision! Failure after failure has only hurt the image of Rahul Gandhi.

Maybe these was the reason for him not step forward and take the challenge thrown at him and Congress Party by Narendra Modi. Hiding behind the Congress Party policy of not naming Prime Minister candidate before the elections, Rahul Gandhi lost an opportunity to prove to the world that he is not running away from responsibility.

Now that Congress Party has suffered its worst poll debacle in the history of Indian elections, Rahul Gandhi still had his last chance to become Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and work towards rebuilding Congress Party from its nadir! Instead Rahul Gandhi behaved like a rich spoil brat and chose to travel abroad time and again.

One thing is evident from these; Rahul Gandhi is not a serious politician! It is good for Congress Party if they realize this sooner than later and not remain in denial mood.

Congress Party should soon come out of Gandhi-Nehru family tangle and give reins to the younger generation who will be able to take the party forward. We do not wish to see Congress Party die completely and would really want them to play the role of an able Opposition. Because in Democracy a strong opposition is as important as a stronger Government!