Its no choice for Kiran

The hopefuls for ministerial berths apart, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy himself sorely wants a recast of his cabinet. But he is not in a position to go ahead with the party high command not very confident about his capabilities to tide over the resultant political uncertainty.
If Kiran were to have his way, he would prefer not to have Bocha Satyanarayana, the PCC chief who is also continuing as Minister for Transport, the Health Minister D L Ravindra Reddy, and of course Textiles Ministers Shankar Rao.
While Sattibabu has been openly projecting himself as a challenger to Kiran with an eye on the CM’s seat, Ravindra Reddy has been mincing no words against the Chief Miniser’s style of functioning. Bocha has been holding two posts against the party policy and that has only given him more political space to maneuver against the CM.
The irrepressible Shankar Rao has been causing lot of embarrassment to Kiran and most of his cabinet colleagues, who reportedly demanded the Contonment MLA’s removal from the government.
However, Kiran has not been granted green signal by the Congress Party leadership for a cabinet reshuffle at this juncture. The imminent by-polls in the state has also put paid to his plans, as the party leadership does not want to upset the applecart on the eve of by-elections.
Hence, whether Kiran likes it or not, he has to work with the present set of Ministers, who still harbor reservations against accepting the young Chief Minister as their undisputed leader.
It is in this backdrop that the Chiranjeevi’s group also cannot be accommodated in the ministry for the next few months. However, Chiru himself is likely to be absorbed in the central cabinet. His Tirupati seat will then be clubbed with other constituencies going for by-polls probably in March-April next year.

Kiran survives, Jagan proves point

The opposition sponsored no-confidence motion against the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh was defeated by a huge margin in the state assembly late Monday night.
After over a 16-hour-long debate on the motion moved by Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the house voted on the motion after 1 a.m. While 122 members supported the motion, 160 opposed it and there was one neutral. Five members were absent during the voting.
Though 16 Congress legislators loyal to YSR Congress party leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy violated the whip to vote in favour of the motion, it was not enough to defeat the government.
The ruling party has 153 members in 295-member house. The magic figure required to defeat the motion was 143 as there are seven vacancies in the house.
In addition to ruling party's 136 members, 17 out of 18 legislators of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and all seven members of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) opposed the motion.
All 85 members of TDP, 12 of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), four of CPI, two of BJP, one each of CPI-M, YSR Congress party and independent voted for the motion.
Though YSR Congress party's honorary president Vijayamma had reached the assembly in the morning with 18 Congress rebels, the number dwindled to 16 by the time of the voting. Suspense over the actual strength of Jagan group continued till the last minute as Congress leaders made all out efforts to win back rebels.
Announcing the defeat of the motion, Speaker N. Manohar adjourned the house sine die.
On the last day of the five-day winter session, the house debated the motion for over 16 hours. The debate was marred by not just heated exchanges between treasury and opposition benches but also by the allegations and counter allegations among the parties supporting the motion.
If the final result at the no-confidence vote was to be taken into account, the Congress has only 137 members whereas the combined Opposition strength was 122.
“If one were to take out the combined strength of PRP and MIM (24 MLAs) and add it to the Opposition tally, it would almost reach the magical 150-mark which is sufficient to unseat the Kiran government. It was a close shave for the CM. Despite his bravado, the CM must be feeling the jitters,” a senior analyst pointed out.

A boy for Aamir and Kiran

Actor Aamir Khan and wife Kiran Rao have become parents to a baby boy, born on December 1. In a statement, the actor confirmed "Due to medical complications, we were advised to have a baby through IVF - surrogacy, and we feel very grateful to the Almighty that all has gone well."

The news first trickled in on Twitter where filmmaker Kunal Kohli tweeted around 12 pm: "Congrats Aamir and Kiran. Lots of love to you and your lil baby boy. So so happy for all 3 of you."

In a letter sent to media organizations, Aamir shared, "It gives us the greatest joy to share with you the good news of the birth of our baby boy. This baby is especially dear to us because he was born to us after a long wait and some difficulty. Due to medical complications, we were advised to have a baby through IVF - surrogacy, and we feel very grateful to the Almighty that all has gone well. We are humbled by the greatness of God, the miracles of science, and the kindness and love of our families and friends in being there for us while respecting our privacy. We seek your good wishes and blessings for our child."

#Aamir Khan is now trending on Twitter with fans sending congratulatory tweets to the new parents; we add our wishes too