He now says a TD win is a historic necessity. “What our leader says is correct. The TD has to win to keep the party intact. A win will save the party and a defeat will disintegrate it. The TD cannot afford to lose,” said a party leader. Naidu is leaving nothing to chance.
While it is debatable whether sweating it out on his massive walkathon, despite his age and the scorching weather, will reap dividends, doling out promotions to party leaders to prevent them from moving to other parties is probably a wise move bearing in mind the old saying about certain rodents deserting a sinking ship.
Naidu pep talk to party boomerangs
Telugu Desam supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu’s energising talk to party cadres appears to have done more harm than good. Reports quoted him saying that the party would have to wind up if it failed to win the 2014 election.
What was meant to galvanise the cadres actually disheartened them and also raised serious doubts about the ability of the party’s heir apparent and Naidu’s son Lokesh, to lead the party. Naidu’s comments came at a time when Lokesh is positioning himself as the successor and trying to keep rival and film hero Jr NTR at a safe distance from the party. “Our boss might be desperate but his comments indirectly indicate that he has no faith in Lokesh bouncing back in 2019 even if the party lost in 2014,” lamented a senior party leader.
Congress takes credit
In the Mahabharata, for Karna every boon turned into a curse, but for Arjuna, every curse became a boon. This happens in the political Mahabharata, too. Opposition parties criticised the state government and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy for the hikes in power tariff.
Some ruling party members also criticised the Chief Minister and demanded that the power tariff be reduced for the common man. The Chief Minister took the demands seriously and afforded some relief to poorer consumers.
Loath to give the Opposition parties any of the credit for the lowering of tariffs, senior Congress MLA and former minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy pointed out that Congress leaders, including himself, had criticised the Chief Minister for the high rates. So the Congress also has the right to claim credit, he said.
Shankar’s trantrums
Former minister and senior Congress MLA P. Shankar Rao has promised to spare the media his tedious press conferences if they investigate a certain project. Shankar constantly criticises Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and other leaders. In fact, his single-point programme is to criticise someone every day.
The media is pretty fed up with his daily press conferences. On Friday, he criticised the Chief Minister as usual. But, for a change, he wished good health to YSR Congress honorary president Y.S. Vijayalakshmi, who is on an indefinite hunger strike, and Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is on his interminable walkathon.
He wound up the conference by saying that if the media doesn’t want to hear from him again, they should make enquiries about the Greenfield lands’ issue in which he is facing certain allegations. If the allegations against him are proved, then he will not hold any press conferences in future, he said. But if the allegations against him are indeed proved where will he go? Straight behind bars most likely, in which case there will be an official ban on all press conferences!
Babus’ tiff with leaders
The current tribal welfare commissioner Somesh is under fire from his staff for what they alleged in a memorandum submitted to the government, his highhanded behaviour. The staff even marked a copy of their complaint to Somesh himself.
Somesh is not in good odour with tribal welfare minister P. Balaraju either for transferring the project director of Paderu ITDA, which falls in the minister’s native Visakhapatnam district, without ministerji’s knowledge. Khammam district collector Siddharth Jain, too, has rubbed up politicians the wrong way. MLAs of the district have complained to the Chief Minister that the collector is not following protocol.
State will miss RS
Yet another officer will most likely be leaving for the national capital soon. Principal secretary (rural development) R. Subrahmanyam is tipped to join the Union finance ministry as joint secretary.
He is known for his hard work and effective implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and Self-Help Group schemes. The state will be missing a good officer at least for the next five years.
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