Lok Sabha member from Kurnool Butta Renuka, who has been playing hide and seek about her political plans, finally revealed that she would contest on Telugu Desam Party ticket from Kurnool in 2019 general elections.She told media that there was no truth in the reports that she would contest the assembly elections in 2019 from Yemmiganur assembly constituency.

“I will contest only Lok Sabha elections and from Kurnool again. This time, I would contest on TDP ticket,” Renuka said.However, the local TDP leaders are yet to accept her as the party leader, as she had never been active in the party activities.Though most of her followers have joined the TDP, she has been maintaining distance from the TDP, less she would face the disqualification threat.

As a result, the TDP leaders also have been maintaining distance from her. On Saturday, they have not attended the official programme organised by the MP.She was inaugurating the water treatment plant at Yemmiganur constituency using the MP Local Area Development funds, but the local TDP leaders did not attend the programme.

Till recently, there were reports that Renuka might even join the the Bharatiya Janata Party before the next elections.She did not join the protests of the TDP leaders in the Parliament during the recent budget session on special category status demand. She did not even utter a word in favour of special category status.

And she even met Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with her family and spent some time with him. She told the media then that she had not yet decided from which party she would contest the next elections.“I will take a call depending on the political situation prevailing then,” she said.

Telangnana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had to face criticism from some quarters over skipping the swearing-in ceremony of Janata Dal (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy as the chief minister of Karnataka at Bengaluru early this week.The Congress leaders in Telangana alleged that KCR avoided the function as he was afraid of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the wake of reports that the Centre threatened to reopen CBI cases against him.

Though the TRS leaders defended it saying KCR had other official engagements on Wednesday and hence had to go to Bengaluru a day in advance to greet him.A section of media tried to project that KCR had foregone a golden opportunity of consolidating the regional parties to form a federal front and conceded the advantage to his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, who grabbed the initiative on the federal front issue.

But after a couple of days, analysts started understanding the strategy of KCR. They now feel that KCR had done a good thing by skipping the oath-taking ceremony, as he would also have got the stigma of being pro-Congress.Like Naidu, he would not have avoided shaking hands with the Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.Since Naidu had no threat from the Congress in AP, he could take the risk, but it would have been a big political blow to KCR had he rubbed shoulders with the Congress leaders in Bengaluru, as he is fighting the Congress party in Telangana.

“It was definitely a clever move on the part of KCR to skip the Bengaluru visit on Wednesday and he avoided the embarrassment of joining hands with Congress party against which the TRS is fighting in the State,” an analyst said.Secondly, the people had not given mandate to the Congress party and would not appreciate Kumaraswamy joining hands with it.So attending the swearing in ceremony is against the wishes of the people. That would in turn have an impact on Telangana elections as well. Hence, KCR did a good thing by skipping the ceremony.

YSR Congress party president and leader of opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy seems to have mastered the art of politicking in the last five years.He has learnt the tricks of the trade of wooing various sections of people with attractive announcements.When Jagan was touring Nimmakuru village in Krishna district, the birth place of Telugu Desam Party founder and legendary actor N T Rama Rao, he announced that he would rename Krishna district as N T Rama Rao district, if his party is voted to power in 2019.

Though his announcement became a little controversial, it pushed the TDP into defensive and attracted NTR’s fans and also his family members.On Friday, when Jagan was touring West Godavari district as part of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, he came up with yet another surprising announcement.He declared that if he becomes the chief minister, he would name West Godavari District as Alluri Sitarama Raju district, after the rebellious freedom fighter who was killed by the British for his armed rebellion.

“The present Naidu government has scant respect for such a great revolutionary. It did not even establish a memorial for him and neglected his birth place. If I am voted to power in 2019, I will name West Godavari as Alluri Sitarama Raju district,” Jagan said.In fact, Alluri does not belong to West Godavari district – he was born in Visakhapatnam and fought with British in Narsipatnam of Visakhapatnam and other agency areas of East Godavari district like Rampachodavaram and Raja Vommangi.

Though he also toured parts of West Godavari district, he was basically from Vizag and East Godavari districts.However, Jagan deliberately made the announcement to name West Godavari after Alluri, apparently to woo the Kshatriya (Raju) community, which is predominant in this district.Already, the Raju community is up in arms against the TDP government for neglecting it. So, Jagan wants to capitalise on their unrest and garner their votes!

BENGALURU: DK Shivakumar, the senior Congress leader in Karnataka, is widely seen to have played a crucial role to block BS Yeddyurappa’s efforts to poach some of his party’s 78 lawmakers.Mr Yeddyurappa appeared to concede the pivotal role that Mr Shivakumar had played when he gave him a backhanded compliment, describing him as a khalnayak, or villain.

Mr Yeddyurappa had to resign as chief minister on Saturday last because the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats in this month’s assembly election, was short of the majority mark of 111.The BJP had allegedly attempted to lure and coerce some lawmakers from the Congress-Janata Dal Secular alliance but Mr Shivakumar sequestered the lawmakers in hotels in Bengaluru and later, Hyderabad.

The Congress-JDS flock intact, it wasn’t much of a problem for Mr Yeddyurappa’s successor to clear the floor test.News agency Press Trust of India said HD Kumaraswamy received 116 votes at Friday’s trust vote. Mr Yeddyurappa’s BJP had walked out of the assembly minutes earlier after its leader’s speech where he predicted that the Congress would regret their choice of chief minister.

When DK Shivakumar sought to object, Speaker Ramesh Kumar told him it was all right.”One man’s food is another man’s poison. You are a hero to some and a villain to others,” Mr Kumar said.”I had to object to this (because) it is my duty. For him I may be a villain…khalnayak… but for my party, I have to do my job,” said the Congress leader, who was believed to have been unhappy about overlooked for the deputy chief minister’s post. That position went to the Congress’s Dalit leader G Parameshwara.