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.

Vijayamma makes impressive maiden speech

YSR’s wife and YSR Congress Party’s sole MLA in the Assembly Vijayamma made her maiden speech in the Assembly during the debate on no-confidence motion and she made an emotional impact. Her speech was halting most of the time, but she overcame the initial hesitation a couple of minutes through the speech.
Her 16-mintue speech contained all important points she wanted to make. She reminisced fondly about her husband, pointed out the irony of the situation when she had to speak in an Assembly without YSR’s presence. She pointed out how both Congress and TDP made critical references to her late husband.
Reminding that the present government owed its existence to YSR’s hardwork, she said it was a quirk of fate that she had to vote against the same government. She also talked about how YSR worked all through his life for Congress Party and single-handedly brought it into power in the state.
She also took potshots on TDP and Chandrababu Naidu, sarcastically saying that she failed to understand whether the no-confidence was against YSR or for farmers.
Most importantly, she declared that her party as well as those who continued to be loyal towards YSR would vote for the no-confidence, whatever the motives of TDP were. She congratulated the MLAs loyal to YSR who were going to vote against Congress, even though they were aware that they might face disqualification.
She also felt that had TDP moved the confidence resolution six months earlier when Chiranjeevi had not merged his PRP with Congress, the government would have fallen.
On the whole, Vijayamma’s speech made an impact on the House, which listened to her raptly. Probably worried over the message her speech would send to the people at large, PCC Chief Botsa Satyanarayna was on his feet to clarify that Jagan deserted Congress on his own. Jagan wanted dynastic rule in the state and claimed CM’s seat as a matter of hereditary right, which was not possible in Congress, he said.
Botsa also pointed out, rather cryptically, that it was Kiran Kumar Reddy who defended Jagan when TDP charged YSR’s son with the murder of Paritala Ravi.
Vijayamma again rose to clarify that Jagan had to come out of Congress because the party did not give permission for his ‘Odarpu Yatra’. It was only towards the end of her speech that Jagan loyalists like Balineni rushed to her help.

MIM blackmailing fruitful

Till the other day, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation mayor Banda Karthika Reddy was reluctant to step down from her post and was firm on continuing in the post for at least another one year.
Even Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana was bargaining with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen that the Congress wants to retain the Mayor post for another one year, after which it would be handed over to the MIM.
However, all of a sudden, Karthika agreed to resign from the post and Botsa declared that it would be given to the MIM.
One wonders what exactly happened in the last two days.
The answer was simple: the MIM is believed to have taken full advantage of the no-confidence motion introduced by the Telugu Desam Party in the assembly to pull down the Kiran Kumar Reddy government.
The Congress was alert to the reports that MIM president Asaduddin was a good friend of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and if the Congress take a rigid stand on the Mayor post, he might ask the MIM MLAs to join hands with the Jagan party and vote against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government during the no-confidence motion voting.
Since the Kiran government is just counting the numbers to survive and every MLA is very important for it, the Congress party had no option but to succumb to the MIM pressures and give up the Mayor post.
After all, the Chief Minister position is more important than the Mayor post!

Botsa behind PRP blackmail

Is Botsa Satyanarayana behind the sudden outburst of PRP MLAs against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government?
The PRP MLAs today openly expressed their discontent against the Congress Party for ‘humiliating’ them all through. They have been taken for granted by the ruling party since the merger, even though their support is crucial for the survival of the Kiran government.
The Chiranjeevi group, which has 18 MLAs in the Assembly, chose the critical time to vent their anger, as the TDP-led no-confidence is likely to come up anytime now.
However, there is a suspicion in the Kiran camp that Botsa is acting as the agent provocateur in the latest uprising of PRP MLAs. The PCC chief has been openly expressing his antagonism against Kiran’s style of functioning lately.
As most of the PRP MLAs are now looking up to Sattibabu as their political godfather – given that Chiru failed to come up to the task – the wily leader from North Andhra allegedly provoked the latest rebellion in the PRP ranks.
It is most likely that the PRP discontent may end up as a storm in a tea cup, because Kiran and Botsa as well as Chiru cannot afford to let down their government at this stage to play their respective political game.
Chiru and his flock are scheduled to have a meeting with Congress leaders tomorrow to sort out things.