There were several interesting developments, both political and non-political, in the state during the just concluded week, that hit the headlines in the media.
First on the non-political front, the Rosaiah government’s decision to give licenses to bars on the basis of population has led to strong criticism from the opposition parties as well as general public. The decision to allow setting up of a bar for every 10,000 population in the rural areas and for every 12,000 people in Hyderabad would only open the floodgates for liquor, which would have far reaching consequences.
On the political front, the ignominious defeat of the ruling Congress and the Telugu Desam Party in the previous week’s by-elections in the Telangnaa region has created tremors in both the parties. A dejected Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas, whose political career has almost come to an end at least for the next four years, went to New Delhi and offered to step down owning moral responsibility for the defeat. On the other hand, the Telangana Congress leaders once again started raisng their voice for separate statehood. The Congress MPs from the Telangana region met the party high command and conveyed to the high command that if Telangnaa Congress was not granted, there would be no future for the party in the region. However, the Telangana Congress leaders are still putting up a brave front saying only the Congress would be able to deliver Telangana.
The situation in the TDP is more pathetic. The party leaders from Telangana tried to mount pressure on party president N Chandrababu Naidu to submit a positive note to the Srikrishna Committee in support of Telangana; they even put up the demand to split the party into two units: one for Telangana and another for Andhra, but Naidu shot down their demand and asked them to keep shut. He is still firm on his “two-eyes” theory and has thrown the ball in the Congress court.
Meanwhile, the cold war between the groups of Chief Minister K Rosaiah and Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has reached a new high this week. The week began with the suspension of another Jagan loyalist Gattu Ramachandra Rao from the PCC Kisan Cell. The ouster of Sri Krishnadevaraya University Vice-Chancellor Dr Kusuma Kumari from the post on the charges of financial irregularities and favouritism in the university appointments has added further fuel to the fire in the Jagan camp.
Kusuma Kumari, who happens to be the sister-in-law of former TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, who is presently actively involved in the Odarpu Yatra of Jaganmohan Reddy, openly alleged that her removal was the conspiracy by Rosaiah only because she was appointed by YSR and was loyal to Jagan. She moved the High Court in the week end challenging her removal.
The Jagan camp took Kusuma Kumari’s removal very seriously. The very next day, former minister and Parkal MLA Konda Surekha came out strongly against the injustice meted out to the Jagan loyalists in the hands of Congress high command. In a strongly-worded letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Surekha castigated Rosaiah and other “old wolves” in the party for targeting Jagan supporters. She also found fault with the Congress high command for witch-hunting Jagan.
The very next day, there were reports from New Delhi that Surekha was being issued a show-cause notice and she would be given 10 days time to respond. And this angered Jagan loyalists further and suspended PCC general secretary Ambati Rambabu came down heavily on Rosaiah and Congress high command for their unilateral decisions to suspend Jagan loyalists one after the other. The PCC sent a report to the high command over the “voices of revolt” from the Jagan camp. The Kadapa MP, who had been in Delhi for four days, maintained a stoic silence.
The jokers of the week, however, was Praja Rajyam Party president Chiranjeevi who made further fool of himself by saying that his party would come to the rescue of the Rosaiah government, in the event of a split in the Congress party on account of revolt by Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. He said his party MLAs would extend support to the Rosaiah government and see that the government would not fall due to political crisis. However, reports say 14 out of 18 MLAs are against this decision. The PRP president also degraded himself further by expressing his desire to stage a comeback into films to cover up his failure as a politician!
