TDP's Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy battle it out for power from Kuppam and Pulivendula respectively. Vicky Nanjappa compares the two areas to see how both of them fare.
The tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has led to an unprecedented outpouring of grief and sorrow across the state.While many of the late CM's followers have reportedly committed suicide, others have chosen various other ways to express their sorrow.Many villagers residing in far-flung areas, who could not afford to travel to Hyderabad or Cadippa for YSR's funeral, performed 'funerals' at their villages, with the effigies and photographs.
Telugu Desam Party suspended member of Legislative Assembly Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao alias Nani from the party after he met YSR Congress honorary president Y S Vijaya in Hyderabad on Monday.
A legislator from his native Chittoor district in the Rayalaseema region of the state, 50-year-old Reddy will have to also use all his political acumen to take on the challenge posed by Congress' rebel Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
Condemning the alleged attack during the state-wide padayatra called praja prasthanam taken up by her in Warangal district on Monday, the YSR Telangana Party chief marched towards the chief minister's camp office.
Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tewari on Thursday described the tragic death of Chief Minister Y S Rajshekhera Reddy and four others in a helicopter crash, approximately 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool, as one of the saddest moments in his career, and added that it would take him some time to recover from it.Telugu Desam Party leader Yerran Naidu said, "We are shocked by YSR's death"."He was a very hands-on chief minister," said Renuka Chowdhury.
He asked if DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, "who speaks of Tamil culture, such a serious allegation has been made--will DMK snap ties with Congress, for Tamil pride and the Tamil people."
The Communist Party of India-Maoist on Tuesday finally broke its silence over the tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The outlawed organisation described his death as the end of an era of a 'dictator, a war lord and an undemocratic World Bank agent'.Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji, a senior underground leader of the CPI-Maoist, dismissed the outpouring of grief across the state after YSR's demise as an orchestrated show.
As Telangana voters queued up to exercise their franchise in the assembly polls on Thursday, they were pleasantly surprised by finding some of the well-known actors and politicians around them.
The CBI is looking for an approver in the disproportionate assets case against the YSR Congress chief to make the case stronger. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Seems like there is a battle for supremacy on in Andhra Pradesh. During the past couple of days, there have been reports which suggest that Kadapa member of Parliament YS Jaganmohan Reddy is slowly losing his clout and most of his loyalists are trying to make a return to their 'mother' party.
If she cannot recast the party, bring together the factions opposed to her, and present herself as her brother's true challenger, there will be little left for her in politics, notes Aditi Phadnis.
The Telugu Desam has suspended former MP M V Mysura Reddy from the party for "breach of party discipline" after he met YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday morning.
A special budget for farmers and interest-free loans for farmers and women are among the welfare programmes announced by Kadapa member of Parliament Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, which he said his YSR Congress Party would implement if it comes to power.
Although the BRS is projecting supreme confidence, who will be able to tap anti-incumbency -- the BJP or Sharmila plus the Congress -- remains to be seen.
Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha is expected to be produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court by the Enforcement Directorate in New Delhi on Saturday for obtaining her remand for custodial interrogation in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, officials said.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
'Chandrababu is wiser and a very good administrator.' 'Jagan is the opposite. He is not very wise, not a good administrator.'
'There is also a possibility that Andhra Pradesh may demand a similar package. But as of now, we are only working on a package for Bihar.'
In a big setback to the chief ministerial ambitions of YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the Congress high command has decided to ignore his claim over a ticket for the by-elections to the Pulivendula Assembly constituency which fell vacant due after his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death. Instead, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided to field YSR's widow and Jagan's mother Vijayalakshmi as Congress candidate in Pulivendula, where by election will be held on December 19.
The humiliation for the Telugu Desam Party was such that it could cross the double digit in only five urban local bodies while other opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Partymade little gains.
With YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy in jail for alleged acts of financial frauds, it was his mother Vijayamma who took on the mantle of running the party in his absence.
Jaganmohan Reddy, whose party has nine MPs, had already announced last month that his party parliamentarians would quit on April 6, at the end of the budget session, if the special category status was not granted.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the quid pro quo investment case against YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, filed one more supplementary chargesheet on Monday.
Exactly a month after Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death in a helicopter crash, his family on Thursday moved out of the Andhra Pradesh chief minister's official residence in Begumpet area to their own home in swish Banjara Hills.
While the news of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was heard with shock and disbelief all over the state, it fell like a lightening on his home district of Kadapa, specially his home town Pulivendula.
Congress MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy continued his 'Odarpu yatra' (consolation tour) in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh on Monday.
The state's economic health is in focus as it has consistently breached the fiscal deficit in eight of the last 10 years since Telangana's formation.
BRS leader and former Telangana minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy claimed that Kavitha was taken to Delhi on a flight at 8.45 pm.
The ongoing battle in Seema-Andhra is clearly between the Telegu Desam Party and the YSR Congress. Both parties are doing their best to seize the advantage and the misery of the Congress which is now being accused of splitting the state. Vicky Nanjappa reports
YSR Congress Party honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi began her indefinite fast against the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh and accused TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu of having a tacit understanding with Congress on the separate statehood issue.
YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday walked free after being questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation for about seven hours in the illegal assets case.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha after an hours-long raid at her premises in Hyderabad and brought her to Delhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, agency sources said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi paid glowing tributes to the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in Hyderabad on Friday.
In a survey conducted by Nielsen, for Telugu news channel NTV, an overwhelming 78 per cent of the electorate in Andhra Pradesh stated that they would like to see Jaganmohan Reddy succeed his father YSR Rajasekhara Reddy as the next chief minister. According to the survey, the results of which were also released by the Congress Legislature Party, caretaker Chief Minister K Rosaiah was second on the popularity chart with 13 per cent support.
Former Andhra Pradesh Home Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy today appeared before a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Hyderabad in connection with a case relating to alleged quid-pro-quo investments in Kadapa Member of Parliament Jagan's companies.
Amid loud slogans of "Jai Jagan", YSR Congress party leader Jaganmohan Reddy walked out of the Chanchalguda central jail in Hyderabad on Tuesday after the Central Bureau of Investigation court issued formal orders for his release on bail.
Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan on Wednesday filed an application with the Election Commission to form a new party.The move comes a little over a month after he quit the Congress, alleging that the party leadership, including president Sonia Gandhi, had 'insulted and humiliated' his family.After a series of discussions, Jagan's supporters felt that the name of his new party should comprise YSR but not Congress.
Who will take over the mantle of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh? This is the big question in the event of the death of charismatic leader Dr Y S Rajashekhara Reddy.