The bypolls to four Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats are slated for May 29. Barring two assembly seats, the vacancies in the remaining Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies were caused by the en masse resignation of TRS MPs and MLAs led by KCR. Jeevan Reddy decided to quit the minister's post following the Congress high command's decision to field him in the Karimnagar bypoll.
Gangster Aziz Reddy alias Baba Reddy was shot dead by the Hyderabad police in the posh Jubilee hills area of the city on Wednesday night. As the policemen closed in on the gang, Reddy and his associates tried to flee. The police asked them to surrender, but Reddy started firing at the police. The police returned the fire and Reddy was killed in the ensuing shootout.The police commissioner said that Reddy was a close associate of Mumbai's underworld don Chhota Rajan.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has decided to support the Telugu Desam Party in the Assembly byelections in Andhra Pradesh, except in the four constituencies being contested by the Left parties. The party however said this alliance would stand only for the bye-polls and did not extend to general elections to the Assembly and Lok Sabha.
The Election Commission has shifted Rangareddy District Collector Praveen Prakash from his post, in view of his poor track record during elections. The Election commission had ordered the removal of Prakash as the collector and district magistrate of Visakhapatnam during the assembly by-election in the Vizag-I constituency in 2006. He had earned the wrath of the EC for replacing the Returning Officer without obtaining its permission.
Naidu set out on the yatra in a specially built campaign bus from Matammagudi (local temple) in a Dalit colony in Rayalapuram village in his native Chittoor district, after seeking divine blessings of Lord Venkateswara at the famed Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam. With the next Assembly elections barely a year away, Naidu is undertaking the marathon yatra to dethrone the Congress regime led by Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. Naidu's yatra will enter Nalgonda district from Guntur.
Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu turned 58 on Sunday. Naidu said that the TDP, under his stewardship, aimed at ushering the third generation economic reforms for the benefit of the poorer sections. He lamented that the reforms undertaken so far had only benefited some states and the rich sections of society.The TDP leader said that he visited NTR's samadhi to seek his blessings for embarking on a 100-day rath yatra.
The Left parties and Telugu Desam Party jointly staged a protest at Indira Park in Hyderabad on Thursday in protest against the failure of Andhra Pradesh and Central governments in controlling the abnormal hike in the prices of essential commodities. The parties vowed to take up 'serious agitation' in future if the governments failed to act swiftly to control the price rise.
International passengers departing from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad from April 23 onwards will have to pay Rs 1,000 ($25) towards user development fees (UDF). Announcing this in a statement, the new airport developer -- GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited -- said that the fees would be collected with the approval of the ministry of civil aviation.
The labourers, who were using heavy equipment, had no time to escape when a 50-feet-high mound of soil caved in. Villagers rushed to the spot to pull out the trapped labourers from under the debris. Revenue and police personnel also joined in the rescue operations. Eight bodies were retrieved after a three-hour operation. Five injured persons were shifted to the government hospital at Korutla. Relatives of the deceased alleged that adequate safety measures had not been taken
The Andhra Pradesh government has re-launched the Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme for below-poverty-line (BPL) families in the State from Wednesday, coinciding with Ugadi, the Telugu New Year Day that was celebrated two days ago. Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy formally inaugurated the scheme at Jadcharla in backward Mahbubnagar district on Wednesday.
A top leader of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist was arrested by the police in Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. Hailing from Karimnagar district in the backward Telangana region, Amar headed the Janashakti group as its central committee secretary.
After taking off, the captain of the Kingfisher Airlines flight from Hyderabad to Delhi alerted air traffic control saying that he was receiving a smoke detection indication in the cargo hold of the aircraft. As per standard airline procedures, he requested to return to Hyderabad. During the precautionary unloading of the cargo, an un-identified substance was located.
The no trust motion tabled by the main opposition Telugu Desam Party against the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh was defeated in the State Legislative Assembly in the early hours of Thursday. The motion was put to vote by Speaker K R Suresh Reddy around 1.45 am after the House witnessed acrimonious debate over the motion for nearly 39 hours spread over the last three days.
Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker K R Suresh Reddy on Wednesday pulled up Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu for questioning his authority and showing 'disrespect to the chair.' On the third day of the marathon debate on the no-trust motion tabled by the main opposition Telugu Desam Party, the speaker lost his cool when Naidu and other TDP members wildly gesticulated and made certain remarks against the chair.
Communist Party of India-Maoist central committee member G Saraiah alias Azad and his wife Padma were shot dead in an exchange of fire with Greyhound commandos in the forests between Kantanapalli-Rampuram villages in Eturunagaram mandal. Azad was suspected of organising the killing of 16 tribals in Nizamabad district in 2002.
The Andhra Pradesh assembly took up the marathon debate on the no-confidence motion tabled by the main opposition TDP against the Congress government. This is the first time that the present government is facing a no-trust motion even as it completes four years in power. The TDP attacked the Congress government for alleged acts of omission and commission.
The election of the octogenarian Communist veteran to the post came on the concluding day of the four-day 20th National Congress in Hyderabad. S Sudhakar Reddy, member of Parliament from Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh, was elected the deputy general secretary of the party, a post that has been revived after a gap of nine years.
"It is surprising that even after going through with the completion of recording of evidence of witnesses and arguments, the commission has failed to submit its findings. So much so that Mumbai High Court had to comment adversely regarding the functioning and delay in the completion of inquiry by the commission. "Consequently, there is genuine feeling among the vast sections of the society, especially among Muslims," the resolution noted.
The Communist Party of India has appealed to the new government in Pakistan to grant clemency to Indian prisoner Sarabjeet Singh. "The government of Pakistan has shown a good gesture by postponing his hanging for a month. Now, the new government of Pakistan may show another good gesture by granting him clemency, as he has suffered due to misplaced identity and has already served long years of imprisonment," the resolution said.
"Though we welcome the amendments to Succession Act, passing of Domestic Violence Act, women quota in NREG Act and the announcement of extension of maternity leave to six months, we are critical of the failure of the UPA government to introduce the bill on 33 per cent reservations of seats to women in Parliament and state assemblies," the resolution, adopted on the penultimate day of the ongoing 20th Congress of the CPI, noted.