Mahatma Gandhi is largely credited for bringing everyone onboard in the struggle to achieve independence to the country from British rule, and has been with affection and love, called ‘Bapu’, the Father of the Nation. Picking a leaf from the Mahatma’s life, and the respect he enjoys generation after generation in India, the BRS has now taken to calling their party supremo KCR as ‘Telangana Bapu’, the ‘Father of Telangana’, The BRS office, Telangana Bhavan, is awash with banners declaring KCR as ‘Telangana Bapu’. “What Gandhi did for India, was done by KCR for Telangana. So why should this come as a surprise to anyone?” is the line that one encounters when talking about the banners at the party office. This is a bit much, acknowledge some in the party but shrug it off saying the man deserves some attention after being unceremoniously swept out of power in the last elections.
ROJA FACES UPHILL TASK
Anything can become fodder for the political mill, especially if that mill is operated by those opposed to a leader. This was brought home recently for Roja Selvamani, minister in the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh. Her comment that her success in politics was the result of her hard work and that she was a self-made political leader with no political family history to propel her career, quickly boomeranged with her, and YSRC critics pointed out that her party leader Jagan Mohan Reddy owed his political career to his father’s political legacy. Roja, also facing some internal rivals, had recently hinted at backbiters within her party who are trying to undermine her prospects in the elections. Insiders or not, the minister is currently going through some tough times.
ARVIND ‘BOND’ DHARMAPURI
Bonding with voters can take many avatars and one that apparently worked for BJP’s Arvind Dharmapuri was his promise on a bond paper before the last Lok Sabha elections that he would ensure the setting up of a turmeric board which finally happened. Now, with the election season underway, the people of Nizamabad are looking forward to yet another “poll promise bond paper” from Arvind who is seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha. Will Arvind take the bait again with people expecting yet another promissory note from him is the question now doing the rounds in Nizamabad.
MISSING MINISTER CREATES FURORE
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A “missing” minister in Andhra Pradesh is all the talk of the town in Yerragondapalem after posters suddenly surfaced claiming ‘Minister Adimulapu Suresh is missing’. To make matters worse for Suresh who was told to contest the Assembly elections from Kondapi constituency instead of Yerragondapalem where he won from the last time, the posters further said the minister “whom we voted for in the 2019 election, is nowhere to be seen”. Suresh’s long spells of absence from Yerragondapalem are nothing new, but the posters have made the point yet again with Suresh’s supporters blaming an “anti-minister group” in the YSRC for the poster campaign.
REVANTH IMPRESSES WITH HUMILITY
Connecting with people is a quality that political leaders desperately seek to imbibe. Be it with their words or actions, there is nothing quite like getting a positive response from the crowds they address. Demonstrating this talent to communicate is something that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has displayed repeatedly — the latest instance being the two meetings with women members of self-help groups. His comments that women have more financial discipline than men who would rather squander their money on liquor, and his question if this was not so, was met with nods of agreement and laughter from the women. He also used his government’s flagship scheme, free bus travel for women, to good effect, saying the next time the man of the house or the in-laws begin acting up, all that the women have to do is hop into a bus and visit their parents even if they do not have a single rupee in their hands. And for good measure, he added that they could even visit temples like Yadadri for free in the buses for gaining some peace of mind.
A SHORTER STOOL FOR BHATTI IGNITES ROW Short or tall? What is the right size for a stool? That was the question that did the rounds furiously amidst the recent visit to the Yadadri temple by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and ministers Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and N. Uttam Kumar Reddy. Bhatti was seen seated on a shorter stool and this led to a furore of sorts with BRS leaders jumping on this as a slight to a Dalit leader and the Deputy Chief Minister. Though Bhatti clarified that it was his choice to sit on a shorter stool, the temple administrators reportedly rushed to buy some stools for VIPs to sit on when offering prayers at the temple. The only condition was that all of the new stools should be of the same height as the ones already with the temple.
