Its NTR Trust turn to face Vijayamma's glare

Y S Vijaya’s petition seeking a CBI probe against Chandrababu Naidu and others contained allegations regarding NTR Memorial Trust, from where the affairs of TDP are also run. There are a lot of interesting points made in relation to the Trust, which have a bearing on all such trusts run by various political parties in our state. 
Vijaya’s petition says that land was given to a trust, which was being used for political purposes. Interestingly, most of the offices of political parties in Andhra Pradesh are located in trust lands or buildings leased out by the state government. Gandhi Bhavan, headquarters of Congress Party, Telangana Bhavan, headquarters of TRS, Maqdoom Bhavan, CPI headquarters, Basavapunnaiah Bhavan, CPM headquarters are all standing on lands given by the government.
Another serious allegation made by Vijaya is that donations from foreign countries were being received by the Trust which were being routed to the party and its activities. This, Vijaya alleges, comes under FEMA violation. Her petition compares NTR Trust issue with Kanimozhi’s case, in which the latter received donations to a trust run by her from beneficiaries of Telecom Ministry.
Another charge made by Mrs YSR is that L&T constructed the TDP office building as a quid pro quo for giving the contract for Hitec City.

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.

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.