Congress aimed 234 MLA, 36 MP seats

The Pradesh Congress Committee aimed a total of 234 MLA and 36 MP seats from forthcoming elections.

YS Rajashekhar Reddy launched the Congress party’s poll campaign with glamour galore and he has symbolically launch the campaign at his Camp Office by beating a huge drum at 9.45 a.m., considered auspicious time.

The message was lost; the words 234 MLAs and 36 MPs were printed on the jumbo-sized drum to signify the figure that Dr. Reddy has been predicting as the Congress party’s election tally.

Venkateshwarlu Bulemoni

PR leader Kesineni joins TDP

Former Praja Rajyam party leader Kesineni Babu joined in Telugu Desham Party, yesterday.

Kesineni Babu who resigned to Praja Rajyam party recently and he took the TDP general membership in front of TD chief Nara Chandrababu Nayudu.

In this occasion TD chief asked party men not to believe in poll surveys telecast by private TV channels as they were “far removed from ground reality”. Chandrababu addressed the gathering after admitting Kesineni Babu into the party, Chandrababu Naidu referred to a private channel telecasting the survey results on Sunday without taking its name and said some channels were coming up with surveys favouring Congress.

Kesineni Babu joined with 20 other local leaders and hundreds of his supporters.

This was despite the fact that the Congress leaders themselves have lost confidence and were worried over the fate of their party, he said.

Venkateshwarlu Bulemoni

Chiranjeevi’s ‘Sankharavam’ today

The Tollywood actor turned politician, Praja Rajyam Party founder president Chiranjeevi is going to organize a grand ‘Shankharavam’ programme today.

This is the first public meeting in East Godavari districts in Rajahmundry on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

A host of party leaders, including Tammineni Sitaram, Nagendra Babu, Allu Aravind, Siva Sankar, Devender Goud, K.S.R. Murthy, Upendra and others will participate in the meeting in which five lakh people are expected to attend.

A large number of people from West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts are also expected to participate in the meeting.

The party named the venue of the meeting as Bapurao Phule grounds and stage was named after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

The party workers are making arrangements for huge stage to accommodate 200 people.

Venkateshwarlu Bulemoni

Sushma Swaraj political dance

IT’s poll time: Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj jigs with lambadi women who came from Telangana region to attend the Mahila Sankalp Rally in Hyderabad on Friday.

No ‘fake’ encounters: Chiranjeevi

Ranga Reddy, February 25: The Praja Rajyam party founder president Konidela Chiranjeevi said that social justice was possible only through the ballot and democracy has come to be accepted as the best instrument for social change.

Chiranjeevi said in the Ex-naxalites Forum meeting at L.B. Nagar, Ranga Reddy districe on Tuesday. In this occasion few Maoist naxalites are joined in the party.

PRP leader said that while he had sympathy for people on the “revolutionary path”, there was no place for violence in a democracy.

He said that that there will no “fake” encounters if Praja Rajyam Party government comes to power and efforts will be made to release political prisoners and all necessary steps taken to rehabilitate surrendered naxalites. “We do not view Naxalism as a law and order problem but a socio-economic issue which has to be tackled from the roots,” he observed.

Venkateshwarlu Bulemoni

A.P. Alliance seeks action against YSR

Major Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh, including the TDP, the TRS, the CPI and the CPI(M), on Wednesday, alleged that Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had accumulated Rs. 10,000-crore worth wealth and sought their prosecution by the Centre.

The grand alliance consisting of TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, CPI State secretary K. Narayana and CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavalu, led a 100-member delegation of MPs, MLAs and MLCs from the State and met Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta and sought a fair investigation into the alleged misdeeds of Dr. Reddy and his family members.

Mr. Naidu told mediapersons that the delegation would call on President Pratibha Patil, External Affairs and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and all the floor leaders in the Parliament.

They would consider moving the Supreme Court if no satisfactory action was taken by the Centre.

Rosaiah clarifies on composition of panel

The committee of legislators of both Houses to deliberate the issues and concerns on the formation of Telangana will after all be a government committee comprising political parties.

Amid charges that the government had taken parties for ride on the issue of constituting the committee, Finance Minister K. Rosaiah told reporters here on Wednesday that the committee announced in the Assembly by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy on February 12 would comprise members of political parties.

“It is not a joint house committee as is being made out,” he said clarifying that Dr. Reddy never referred to the joint house panel. But, he said the Chief Minister would give further clarity on the issue in a day or two.

The Finance Minister’s remarks came after uproar over Chief Secretary P. Ramakant Reddy writing letters to the political parties instead of the Legislature Secretariat doing the work on the directions of the Assembly Speaker or the Council Chairman.

Mr. Rosaiah created a flutter by stating that the committee would neither concede Telangana nor oppose the statehood. “It has been constituted only to look into the concerns of the stakeholders,” he added.

It may be recalled that Dr. Reddy informed the Assembly last week the government had no objection for the formation of Telangana State in principle and that the time has come to move forward decisively on the issue. However, before taking a decision many of the issues need to be resolved as serious concerns have been raised by the stake-holders.

He further stated that the State government had decided to constitute a committee of members of both the Houses to deliberate the issues and concerns on the formation of Telangana and further steps could be taken after the report from the joint committee is submitted to the government.