The launch of Jana Sena party by Union minister Chiranjeevi's brother and Telugu movie star Pawan Kalyan may alter political equations in Andhra Pradesh, more particularly in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, days ahead of elections to Lok Sabha and the state assembly.
Even as the schedule of Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly polls is likely to be announced in a week's time, all the major political parties have already gone all out with sarcastic television advertisements targeting their rivals.
Trouble began when the Speaker disallowed adjournment notices on the multi-crore rupee scam relating to misappropriation of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan funds amounting to 40 crore.
The Andhra Pradesh Congress has managed to put off the Telangana issue for a while following the Srikrishna Commission report. For the first time, legislators from the Andhra assembly misbehaved with each other at the start of the budget session.
The Election Commission is set to conduct 17 by-polls in Andhra Pradesh, according to highly-placed sources. The impending president election is the main reason for the hurry is conducting the assembly by-polls, said the sources, as protocol demands that no assembly or Parliament seat should be vacant during the election of the President of India.
Over 60 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise on Thursday in the by-election to the four Lok Sabha and 18 assembly seats,in Andhra Pradesh, widely seen as a referendum on Telangana statehood issue.The polling was largely peaceful barring stray incidents of clashes among political rivals.
As the assembly elections loom large over Andhra Pradesh, a race of sorts has already begun among the political parties to offer sops and make populist promises.
BJP leaders hit back at the DMK and asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi if he agreed with the insulting remarks of its Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partner against the north Indians.
A war of words between Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Rajasekhar Reddy lead to commotion in the House.
Primarily the discussion will be on Satyam matters and also on ensuing parliament and state Assembly polls.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is currently visiting New Delhi and he is expected to discuss the disqualification of those legislators who support YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy with the party top brass there. Although the official version is that Reddy is in Delhi to wish Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi on her birthday, sources say that he wants to discuss this long-pending issue with the party leadership.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
All eyes in Andhra Pradesh are on the by-elections to the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula assembly constituencies, from where Jagan Mohan Reddy and his mother Vijayalaxmi will be contesting.
Top Congress leaders held deliberations on Saturday at the first meeting of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC) focusing on preparing a comprehensive road map for ensuring the party's victory in the upcoming assembly polls in five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
'If he has not achieved 'Congress mukt Bharat' even now, the question of his creating a 'DMK mukt Tamil Nadu' does not arise,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress would also take inspiration from history as it was from Karnataka that an embattled Indira Gandhi had revived her dwindling political future by winning a Lok Sabha bypoll from Chikmagalur.
Capping a day-long acrimonious debate in the Assembly that went on till the wee hours of Saturday, the motion was defeated by 84 votes in a head count by division.
Stepping up its investigation into liquor syndicates in Andhra Pradesh, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has issued notices to three sitting members of Legislative Assembly, one of them from ruling Congress, and others asking them to appear before the ant-graft agency.
Of the 16 assembly seats in Telangana, which went to the bypolls because of en masse resignation of the TRS members, TRS could retain only seven seats. Similarly of the four Lok Sabha seats, which TRS resigned from last year, the party could retain only two and other two were shared by the Congress and the TDP. The ruling Congress party wrested five and the TDP bagged four assembly seats earlier held by the TRS.
On Friday, July 14, India launched its ambitious third lunar mission Chandrayaan 3, eyeing a rare feat in moon exploration.
In a candid chat with Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Botsa declares that he has stood by the people and he would ensure that Andhra Pradesh remains united.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday requested the Centre to follow "established practices and conventions" and refer the bifurcation issue to the state assembly for "appropriate resolution".
So, 11 years after the country switched to EVMs, voters in the 12 Telangana constituencies will once again be depending on paper ballots, ballot boxes and manual counting of votes in the July 27 bye-elections.
In a clear message that the people of Telangana want a separate state, both the Congress and Telugu Desam Party were rejected by the electorate in the region, reports Mohammed Siddique
24 TDP members were suspended for two days on Thursday for stalling the Question Hour.
Renowned Telangana folk singer and balladeer Gaddar, who was popularly known for his revolutionary songs during the 1980s and later during the Telangana statehood agitation, passed away in Hyderabad on Sunday due to ill-health. He was 77.
The vote value of an MLA is calculated on the basis of the total population of the state, based on the 1971 census.
The tumult in the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh in the aftermath of the rout in the assembly bypolls continued on Friday, with some party leaders blaming Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for the poor showing.
The Congress' washout in the recent by-polls at the hands of rebel Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's fledgling party is understood to have been discussed at a meeting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had with his party chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.
While normal life remained paralaysed in Andhra and Rayalseema region for the second consecutive day on Thursday over the Centre's decision to create a separate state of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh appeared to be hurtling towards a deeper political crisis.
In an emotion-filled tone at a roadshow in Kurnool district late on Wednesday night, the former Chief Minister recalled his vow not to step into the Assembly till the TDP returned to power.
"However, if the Lok Sabha elections are held early next year, assembly elections could be held simultaneously," Reddy told media persons, in the backdrop of intense speculations that the Lok Sabha elections could be advanced because of the possible break up of UPA-Left ties over Indo-US nuclear deal.
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.
Leader of the Opposition and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and TRS floor leader G Vijayarama Rao were among those suspended.
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