Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
The Telugu Desam Party on Wednesday night announced that it would not attend the all-party meeting convened by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Delhi on Thursday to discuss the Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana statehood issue. In a letter to Chidambaram, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said it was for the Centre to take the decision on the issue.Telangana Rashtra Samiti and BJP have already said they will not be attending the meet on Friday.
The Telugu Desam party on Monday suffered a setback when one of its senior leaders and legislators Pocharam Srinivas Reddy announced his resignation from the party as well as the assembly. Srinivas Reddy, a former minister, told the media in his home constituency Banswada in Nizamabad district that he decided to quit the party because of the lack of clarity in its stand on the demand for a separate state of Telangana. Reddy said that he had made up his mind to join the TRS.
The Congress ministers from Telangana in Andhra Pradesh on Monday said they will not take back their resignations until the party high command sets a time-frame for the formation of a separate state."We won't take back our resignations till the high command acts within a time-frame for the formation of a separate state of Telangana and clarifies doubts over the second statement of Home Minister P Chidambaram made last week," said AP Civil Supplies Minister J Krishna Rao.
Stepping up its campaign, a group of political parties from Telangana has set an ultimatum for the Centre asking it to announce a time-frame by Monday for formation of the separate state, failing which an indefinite bandh would be enforced from December 29.
The Crime Branch of the Andhra Pradesh police has arrested a man in connection with the attack on senior Telugu Desam party leader Dr Nagam Janardhan Reddy at the Osmania University campus on Thursday.
The two were identified from the photographs and the television footage of the outrageous incident in which 55-year-old Janardhan Reddy was beaten up chappals (slippers), hands and blows were rained on his head and his shirt was torn.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the issue of alleged suicide by farmers hit by natural calamities in Andhra Pradesh would be looked into.The assurance was given by the prime minister to a delegation of seven opposition parties which met him to draw his attention to the plight of farmers in the southern state, Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan told reporters after the meeting.The delegation also handed over to him a letter from TDP chief C Naidu.
The Centre on Tuesday announced a relief of Rs 400 crore to provide succour to rain-hit farmers in Andhra Pradesh, a move aimed at countering the political fall-out of the fast undertaken by Telugu Desam Party leader N Chandrababu Naidu and former Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy. A delegation comprising Members of Parliament from the state met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on Tuesday and apprised him of the losses incurred by farmers in various regions.
Chandrababu's son Lokesh, MLC Y V B Rajendra Prasad and several others were injured in the police action during the arrest of the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister.
Proceedings in both the houses of the Parliament were disrupted on Wednesday with the entire opposition creating uproar over price rise, while the Telugu Desam Party members protested against the creation of Telangana state.
TDP members, led by their leader K Yerrannaidu, were on their feet as soon as the House assembled accusing the Maharashtra government of constructing these projects 'illegally'.
Former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, who is in the thick of a fight against a powerful mine owner and Karnataka's tourism minister Galli Janardhan Reddy, has chided the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress for being under control of mining mafia.
The police resorted to a lathi charge and seized several vehicles of TDP leaders, including Naidu's campaign vehicle, besides taking many party workers into custody.
An agriculture officer, who attempted suicide by immolating herself four days ago, succumbed to her burns in a hospital in Hyderabad on Sunday. Rajeswari, posted as the mandal agriculture officer at Devarakadra in Mahbubnagar district, attempted suicide after she was allegedly humiliated by local MLA Seeta Dayakar Reddy of the Telugu Desam Party over distribution of relief to flood victims in a meeting.
Cracking the whip, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday summarily expelled eight of its MPs who cross-voted or abstained during the trust vote as shocked opposition parties got down to fix errant MPs whose actions helped the United Progressive Alliance government survive.
Opposition parties over the searches conducted by the CID on Margadarsi Financiers owned by media baron Ramoji Rao
Naidu, whose 150-day-long Mee Kosam Yatra entered the West Godavari district on Sunday night spoke to Rao for 15 minutes, well informed and reliable sources in the TDP said. Since Chandrasekhara Rao left the TDP in 2001 and launched the movement for Telangana and formed his own political party, it was first time that the two leaders spoke directly.
The ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh is caught in a state of confusion on how to deal with the resignations of its 24 members of Legislative Assembly, who are loyal to YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. For the record, the party has been saying that by-elections are inevitable in those 24 constituencies and two others from where Telugu Desam Party rebel MLAs have also resigned in support of Jagan.
The war of words between the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti intensified on Sunday with TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao alleging that TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu had foiled the formation of a separate state of Telangana.
The govt and the opposition appeared set for a showdown in Parliament's monsoon session.
Prominent intellectuals, academicians, writers and activists from the Telangana region on Saturday urged former Telugu Desam Party leader T Devender Goud to work with organisations and groups that are already fighting for a separate Telangana state.
After they were suspended from the State Assembly for disrupting the Question Hour, 46 opposition members, led by Leader of the Opposition N T Rama Rao, took out a rally from the Assembly premises to the state Raj Bhavan.
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav joined the protest in the Lok Sabha and, along with Left leaders, demanded suspension of the Question Hour to take up a discussion on the issue. The House was adjourned for about 20 minutes and later parliamentary affairs minister P K Bansal said a structured discussion on the price situation would take place on Wednesday.
As Telangana braces up for yet another round of battle demanding a separate state, all the Congress and Telugu Desam Party MPs and MLAs who resigned their posts embarked upon a mass hunger strike on Wednesday.
The TDP leader said the Congress-led government in Andhra Pradesh has failed on all fronts. He flayed the government for rampant corruption in the state saying that all the welfare schemes initiated by it were aimed to facilitate Congress workers only. Naidu said that Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which had fought the 2004 elections together, betrayed the people of Telangana after coming to power.
Telugu Desam Party leaders from Telangana on Thursday began a bus tour to create an "awakening" among the people of the region on the creation of a separate state.
Controversial Telugu Desam Party legislator TV Rama Rao, who is facing a case of alleged rape and murder, is likely to be arrested by the Crime Branch's Criminal Investigation Department. Five girls from Kerala have given a statement to the CID, alleging sexual harassment and attempted rape by the legislator. The Kerala government has also raised the issue with the government of Andhra Pradesh and the central government. Rama Rao has claimed that this was a conspiracy.
Recounting the experiences during the period of their detention from July 16 to 20, the five women MLAs who returned to Hyderabad on Tuesday night said, "It was five days and four nights of plain torture at the hands of the Maharashtra police... The police even snatched our gold and silver ornaments besides damaging our mobile phones. The Maharashtra police's behaviour was barbaric. We were treated so inhumanly by them that we never thought we will return alive (to Hyderabad)
Normal life was hit in most parts of Andhra Pradesh as the day-long strike called by the key Opposition Telugu Desam -- in protest against the arrest of its president N Chandrababu Naidu and other party leaders by the Maharashtra police -- evoked a mixed response.
The leader of opposition in Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and 74 of his party colleagues refused to apply for bail forcing a Maharashtra court to extend their judicial custody. Preparations were being made to shift Naidu and others including 50 MLAs and 2 MPs to the Nasik Jail.
The rumblings of discontent in Telugu Desam Party have assumed serious proportions with another senior party leader revolting against party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday lambasted BJP and TDP for doing nothing for the country's farmers during the six years of National Democratic Alliance rule. Addressing a massive farmers' rally at Jaggampeta town in Andhra Pradesh after dedicating the first phase of the Rs 600-crore Thota Venkatachalam Pushkara lift irrigation project, Sonia questioned BJP and TDP's credentials to champion the cause of the farmers when these parties were out of power.
The BJP's bandh call, separately endorsed by the Maoists, was meant to mark protest against the delay in the formation of separate Telangana state by the Congress-led UPA government. However, the bandh evoked mixed response though the BJP leaders and activists went around the towns and cities across Telangana to enforce the call.
With Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan on Tuesday deferring the Budget Session of the state legislature, the Telugu Desam Party's plan to move a no confidence motion against the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government has suffered a setback, at least for the time being.
Besides the four Left parties, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Telugu Desam Party, Samajwadi Party, Biju Janata Dal, Janata Dal-Secular and Indian National Lok Dal "have decided to call for a country-wide hartal on July five", a joint statement by top leaders of CPI-M, CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc said in New Delhi.
Against the backdrop of a strong agitation for separate statehood, the ruling Congress and the major opposition Telugu Desam Party face a tough challenge in the coming bypolls to 12 assembly seats in Telangana region.
Eleven Telangana Rashtra Samithi members were suspended from the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly for obstructing its proceedings on Friday morning. It is the second time in two days that the TRS members have been suspended.
YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has proved that he was the real heir to the political legacy of his father late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
The Congress in Andhra Pradesh may complete its term with Jaganmohan Reddy, making it clear that he would like his party to play the role of an opposition in Andhra Pradesh.
