Facing a battle of prestige in the June 12 by-polls, the ruling Congress appears to be going all out to take credit for various welfare schemes launched by late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, while distancing itself from the graft allegations linked to his tenure as chief minister.
The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday said it would ask the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the sabotage angle in the death of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a chopper crash in the wake of conspiracy theories surfacing over the incident.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah said on Tuesday that if there was a conspiracy behind the death of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash, it needs to be uncovered.
The speaker rejected the adjournment motion moved by the TDP and sought to take up regular business, which the Opposition did not allow.
A four member team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, led by R K Tyagi, will visit the site in dense Nallamalla forest on Thursday where the Bell-430 helicopter, carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others, had crashed a week ago.The team landed in Kurnool on Wednesday to start its probe into the crash, which had sent shock waves across the country and raised serious questions about the safety of the helicopters used by VIPs.
The Andhra Pradesh government has stressed that all the mandatory maintenance work and checks were carried out on the Bell-430 helicopter before it took off for its last journey on September 2 and crashed killing the state Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others.
The manufacturer of Bell helicopters has offered its assistance to authorities in probing the crash of the Bell-430 chopper which claimed the lives of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy and four others.
The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday night set up a four-member committee to probe the cause of Andhra Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter crash in which he was killed.
An SMS received by the mobile phone of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy's security officer John Wesley after the VVIP helicopter crashed is what provided the most crucial clue to trace the accident site, government officials said in New Delhi on Thursday.
Cutting across party lines, chief ministers of various Indian states on Thursday paid glowing tributes to Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, while many states declared mourning and a Holiday, as a mark of respect to the leader killed in a helicopter crash.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the assembly polls on Thursday has put the party on a stronger wicket for the election for the post of President expected later this year.
Dr Kumar says it's not just the question of his safety or survival but that of 'my precious big cats'.
The Supreme Court of India on Monday remarked that it was not right to doubt the integrity of any court. The observation was made by a bench comprising of Justice B S Chavan and Justice T S Thakur, which was hearing a petition seeking transfer of cases against Chandrababu Naidu, president of the Telugu Desam Party, to a court outside Andhra Pradesh.
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.
Among the names being mentioned for inclusion as ministers are Tejasvi Surya, the 29-year-old MP from Bangalore South, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the 35-year-old MP from Ladakh, Locket Chatterjee, the 45-year old MP from Hooghly, and Dilip Ghosh, MP from West Medinipur and president of the BJP's West Bengal unit.
"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.
Jaganmohan Reddy hopes for a hung Parliament to 'extract a better deal' for Andhra Pradesh, and says his party will sweep all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
After post-mortem in the local government hospital, police confirmed the case was altered to Section 302 Indian Penal Code that relates to murder.
Even though Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of the late leader, has announced that he will not take part in any of the state government sponsored programmes, he has written to the party high command seeking to make peace.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
Jaganmohan Reddy will be sworn in as chief minister on May 30.
The decision of some key regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Aam Aadmi Party to skip a key opposition meet called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the presidential poll has cheered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it believes that their absence has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
Political observers are keen to see if the BJP will now be guided by its more firmly entrenched ideological dominance in picking a face solidly identified with its core planks, or if it will choose a person tilted more to its electoral calculations. Or, whether its pick will be an ode to its core supporters or a outreach to relatively new groups of votaries.
Soon after the above government order was released, the Opposition strongly condemned the move.
The richest candidate in the first phase is from Chevella. The poorest candidate is also contesting from the same constituency in Telengana!
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said it will take over on Thursday the investigations into the helicopter crash that killed former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Congress legislators in Andhra Pradesh are pressing ahead with their informal meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday, to reiterate their demand to make Jaganmohan Reddy the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh after the tragic death of his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy, in spits of the party high command expressing its displeasure over the campaign.According to sources, the party high command was perturbed by the undue haste to thrust Jaganmohan Reddy into the spotlight.
The campaign for making Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy, gathered pace on Friday with his supporters losing no time and taking up the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said he would be ordering an inquiry into the tragic accident, and added that notwithstanding the inclement weather, it was the pilot's duty to determine a flight could be taken or not.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was embarking upon another major public contact program of "Rachabanda" (Village square) to have a better understanding of the situation at the grass root level when his helicopter went missing on Wednesday.
With a Sukhoi fighter aircraft, a special air craft from Indian Space Research Organization and another low flying aircraft of the state government completing a comprehensive aerial survey of Nallamalla forest area to find missing Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Rajashekhara Reddy's helicopter on Wednesday night and gathering crucial data including the photographs, focus of the search operation on Thursday will move to the ground.
Incessant rains, and not Maoists, is the major hurdle facing the security forces who have launched a massive search operation in the Nallamalla forests in Andhra Pradesh, where Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter went missing this morning, Andhra Pradesh police sources involved in the search operations have said.
Mamata Banerjee's sights are not on the next month's Presidential election. She is focusing on another election that will take place in 2024.
The NDA's combined parliamentary and state-level committed Presidential votes number around 12,000 fewer than a majority.
Naidu informed the House that he had received letters from Singh and 13 other MPs seeking leave of absence on medical grounds.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
