BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya said there is a certain propriety and protocol one associates with these all-party meetings.
"I am telling you that one crore people are drinking ( alcohol) in the state. All of you people vote for BJP, we will offer you cheap liquor at Rs 75. If the revenues are good we will even supply at just Rs 50, (not bad liquor), definitely a good one," Veerraju said indirectly pointing to high prices of liquor in the state.
Even as the political pressure to demand a separate Telangana state is mounting, Congress leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions on Saturday said that the onus of keeping Andhra Pradesh undivided lies with the Centre.
In the midst of mounting pressure from both pro and anti-Telangana leaders, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of the crucial United Progressive Alliance and Congress working committee meetings to take a final decision on the separate statehood issue.
Three of the fence-sitters rule fairly large states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha that together send 63 members to Lok Sabha -- where the Congress or other opposition parties have been pushed to the margins.
Crores are being spent in the high-stakes election poker in Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's mother Y S Vijayamma on Friday resigned as honorary president of YSR Congress party to stand by her daughter Sharmila, who is now heading the YSR Telangana party in the neighbouring state.
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A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Tuesday allowed the plea of YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, facing corruption charges, to visit Kolkata and Lucknow to mobilise the support of parties like the Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party against the move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
The Congress's strategy is to get the bill passed in the Rajya Sabha and then try its luck in the Lok Sabha, where it is unsure of the Bharatiya Janata party's support for it. This, say sources, is the GoM's face-saver plan, as the Rajya Sabha's okay will keep the Bill alive for the 16th Lok Sabha.
Naidu claimed that the previous YSRCP government did not even spare Sri Venkateswara temple and used substandard ingredients and animal fat for making laddus.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
Normal life remained paralysed for the second consecutive day in the 13 districts of the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of the state following the bandh call by Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers and YSR Congress against the tabling of the Telangana bill in Lok Sabha.
Speculation about Sharmila growing closer to the Congress has been doing the rounds for quite some time after she met Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar in Bengaluru in May to congratulate him on the victory of the party in the neighbouring state.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
The Telugu Desam Party has decided not to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Telangana, and the beleaguered party is yet to take a call on whom to support in the state, though it is part of the NDA in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, a senior leader of the party said.
Throwing a direct challenge at the Congress high command, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday said that he would ensure the defeat of the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 when it comes up for passage in the state assembly.
With billionaire Gautam Adani charged in the United States with alleged bribery and fraud, the Congress on Thursday said it 'vindicates' its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the various 'scams' involving his conglomerate.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah was on Saturday nominated the Congress Legislature Party leader by party chief Sonia Gandhi, bringing down the curtains on the issue of sucessor to late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash more than two months ago.
Jopalli Krishna Rao, Dr Rajaiah and S Sathyanarayana tendered their resignations to Andhra Pradesh Congress chief B Sathyanarayana.
It also asked why the data shared pertained to a period from April 2019 even though the scheme for anonymous political funding was introduced in 2017.
The power struggle in Andhra Pradesh Congress after the death of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy took an ugly turn on Sunday when the supporters of YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy disrupted the party's condolence meeting.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd made a number of electoral bond purchases close to the date of bagging crucial projects, including the all-weather Zojila tunnel that is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500 crore in Jammu and Kashmir.
Parallel to this, the ruling Telugu Desam has been organising rallies across the state in solidarity with its MPs.
Rao said his pro-Telangana utterances had nothing to do with his present appointment and claimed that his focus would now be to ensure that the RTC functioned as a viable public sector undertaking.
With the demand for the creation of a separate state of Telangana gaining momentum, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Sunday and is understood to have discussed the contentious matter.
'If we get 399 seats and you say we have not crossed 400, then it is your wisdom. But the '400 paar' slogan is based on calculation and considered opinion'
Thousands of people may have gathered at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday to attend a rally by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi but it remains to be seen whether the mammoth turnout will actually translate into votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh.
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, who will be listed in the history as the last chief minister of an "undivided" Andhra Pradesh, is likely to drop his plans to float a new political party.
With the TRS and TDP achieving majority in Telangana and Andhra respectively, the results reveal that both the states will have non-coalition governments. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Sources within the Congress, including those who have been members of the teams that drafted its 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifestos, said the Karnataka government decision lacked any empirical basis.
This will be the third plenary of the decade-old party, and the first since it came to power in Andhra Pradesh three years ago.
Asaduddin Owaisi, who was once the leader of a little-known outfit confined to the old city of Hyderabad, has emerged as a powerful voice of Muslims in the country in recent years.
The controversy has sparked reactions across states. The famous Mankameshwar temple in Uttar Pradesh has now banned offerings of 'prasad' bought by devotees from outside and said they can offer homemade 'prasad' or fruits.
The decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh has "zero" electoral prospects and it will be a "death blow" to the Congress, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has claimed.
Having ensured the passage of the Telangana Bill, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's main concern now is to see there is no tension in the state and that the decision is accepted amicably by the people of Seema-Andhra following reports of simmering anger in this region over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu on Monday began an indefinite fast in New Delhi to protest against the split of Andhra Pradesh, accusing the Congress of playing politics in view of the Lok Sabha polls, but remained ambivalent on Telangana.
The total assets of seven Members of Parliament analysed from Telangana is Rs 5,596 crore, that of 11 MPs from Andhra Pradesh is Rs 3,823 crore, and 30 MPs analysed from Uttar Pradesh have total assets worth Rs 1,941 crore.
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