As Cyclone Hudhud is closing in on the Andhra Pradesh coastline and is expected to make a landfall near Visakhapatnam by Sunday afternoon, about 1.11 lakh people in five coastal districts have been shifted to safer places.
With protests in Seemandhra against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, the Congress on Tuesday appealed to people in the region to give up their agitation so that a solution that benefits both sides could be arrived at.
Defying shoot-at-sight orders and a curfew, anti-bifurcation agitators on Sunday hit the streets in Vizianagaram town and other parts of the district and clashed with police.
Contrary to earlier expectations, the Telangana bill will now be introduced in the Lok Sabha first instead of the Rajya Sabha with the government seeking a fresh recommendation from the President after the Upper House secretariat held it is a money bill.
The son of Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Minister Ravela Kishore Babu, and his driver have been arrested for allegedly misbehaving with a 20-year-old teacher.
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal on Saturday took a swipe at Sonia Gandhi, saying she "ignored" the groundswell of support against division of Andhra Pradesh by not listening to the party leaders on the issue.
The controversial Communal Violence Bill and the bill for creation of Telangana will be tabled in the next session of Parliament, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Thursday.
While Pusarla Venkata Sindhu was aiming to earn a gold for her country in the Rio Olympics, back home thousands of kilometres away many were, shockingly, fighting to stake claim over her.
Political crisis in Andhra Pradesh over the proposed Telangana statehood further deepened on Saturday with 20 ministers resigning for the cabinet.
The new Council of Ministers has representation from almost all the states, except Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill passed amid din.
In view of the Andhra CM's resignation from the post and the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to grant special category status to the Seema-Andhra for five years. Renu Mittal reports
As many as 20 new faces are expected to be inducted into the Union Council of Ministers on Sunday in the first revamp exercise which is likely to bring in BJP leaders Manohar Parrikar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Bandaru Datttatreya while elevating a few.
Andhra Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Friday arrived in Delhi to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss various issues including the controversial padayatra undertaken by party leader Jaganmohan Reddy, expansion of the state cabinet and the selection of candidates for the by-elections in the Telangana region. He is also expected to raise the issue of Praja Rajyam leader Chiranjeevi's increasing proximity to the Congress.
The launch of a new party by former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy has spiced up the poll scene in parts of state.
Jaganmohan Reddy will be sworn in as chief minister on May 30.
With some variations, all regional political formations, whether in power presently or out of it, share some common features: Tight family control of the political apparatus, key members in elected or appointed positions, obvious wealth but not quite known sources of income, and family factionalism, sometimes open and bitter, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Realising that there was no possibility of being re-elected on a Congress ticket, Rao has now decided to hitch his wagon to the Bhartiya Janata Party. In an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal Union Textiles Minister K S Rao explains the reason for leaving the Congress, his assessment of Rahul Gandhi's leadership and his future plans.
Treading a cautious path on the Telangana issue, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said in Hyderabad on Thursday that the Centre should address the complicated issues concerned with the bifurcation of the state first before it embarks on the process.
The "load shedding", which entails compulsory power cuts in select areas, will be carried out both in urban and rural areas, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company said in a statement.
The assertion comes amid speculation that the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh might rethink its ties with the BJP in view of its disappointment over allocation of funds to the state in the Union Budget.
She is criticising what is perceived to be KCR's strongest point -- welfare -- by charging the government with corruption.
President Pratibha Patil nominated Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan as the doyen of governors to discharge responsibilities and conduct the three-day conference of governors starting October 29 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Opposition BJP has assured the ruling UPA that it would support the bill for the creation of Telangana in Parliament
Claiming that the Andhra Pradesh government has been reduced to minority, the Jagan camp on Saturday dared Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and his cabinet colleagues to step down from their posts and seek a fresh mandate.
Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has reportedly convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security at 5 pm on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of the Naxal terror in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
With this, the number of IITs will touch 16. The new IITs will be set up in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The academic sessions of six new IITs will start on July 23. The IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat will start their session with 120 students each in temporary campuses.
Two thermal power stations at Vijayawada and Kadapa went into steam on Friday as power employees in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh resumed work after calling off their indefinite strike "temporarily" in view of cyclonic storm Phailan.
Although the Congress leadership and UPA has given its nod for Telangana, the road to the separate state is surely going to be a complicated one, reports Anita Katyal.
The victory in the assembly elections, the first in Telangana after its formation in June 2014, might well act as a springboard for the leader, often accused of perpetuating family rule and promoting nepotism, to realise his ambition of playing a greater role in national politics.
Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy has been named in the charge-sheet of the Central Bureau of Investigation's chargesheet against Jagan Mohan Reddy in the disproportionate assets case against the YSR Congress chief.
The new IITs would come up in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Indore in Madhya Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 6,080 crore (Rs 60.80 billion), Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after a meeting of the Union Cabinet.
The Andhra Pradesh government has asked chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi to engage Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee leaders in talks to end the ongoing strike that entered the 31st day on Thursday.
The prime minister wrote on Twitter that he spoke with Union Home Ministry officials and National Disaster Management Authority regarding the situation 'which is being monitored closely'.
This will pave the way for emergence of 24,000 new panchayat-level leaders in Telangana, he said.
With key UPA allies -- the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Trinamul Congress and Nationalist Congress Party members -- clearly expressing their resentment to a new state, sources say the Congress is now looking to find a way out of the situation.
To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
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