TD to Benefit From Kadapa Bypolls

The Kadapa bypolls were necessitated due to the resignation of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy from the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat and his mother Smt. Vijayalakshmi from the Pulivendula Assembly constituency. Both of them also quit the Congress and floated YSR Congress and are likely to re-contest from the same seats under YSR Congress banner. The bypolls have been set to be held on 8 May, 2011.

While late YSR's brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy  resigned as agricultural minister and is contemplating to contest from Pulivendula Assembly constituency against his sister-in-law smt. Vijayalaxmi, who is going to take on Jagan in Kadapa Lok Sabha seat is yet to be decided by the Congress party. Albeit, the Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, who discussed the poll issue with the Kadapa TD leaders and other senior party leaders is of the opinion that his party will benefit in a keen tussle between the Congress and Jagan's party.

It is said the TD is on the look out for suitable party candidates who can not only net the TD solid votes in both the constituencies, but also can syphon off some from the Congress bastion.

Jagan ika Jailukenaa!

Jagan chuttu ucchu bigusukundane antunnaru andaru! Jailu tappadani kooda antunnaru! It is alleged that Jagan Mohan Reddy has amassed huge illegal wealth in the name of 'Business' during the tenure of his father late YS Rajasekhar Reddy as the chief minister. Minister Shankar Rao and two others have filed a PIL in the High Court against Jagan alleging large scale corruption. On a directive of the court, the CBI registered a case and has started conducting raids on Jagan and his alleged associates' companies.   During its probe, the CBI dug out the truth that Jagan along with several associate companies have robbed the State to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees. In this process, the CBI registered a case under sections 13D, 13E, 120B, 409, 420, 477A and are tightening their noose. All these sections are non-bailable. Significantly, under sections 13D and 13E, if anybody who is in power and if he amasses wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income and fails to show relevant accounts, he is liable to be prosecuted and none of these sections are bailable.   According to political observers, the Congress high command seems to be bent upon putting an end to Jagan's much glorified political career. Definitely the CBI raids being conducted on the offices of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will dent his image and demoralise his party. As in the case of Satyam Ramalinga Raju, who didn't get bail so far, Jagan too may face the same situation and won't be in a position to bounce back.

Retired Cop Among Probables For New DGP Post

It's quite quizzical to find a retired cop's name in the list of probables for new DGP post! The murky politics of Andhra Pradesh police has been making news for a long time, ever since the governments of the day started superseding officers and appointing police chiefs on criteria other than merit. The legal challenge by superseded cops have also been ignored by the government what with the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which hears such petitions being rather slow to come up with their orders. However, this time the CAT not only quashed the posting of director general, but also asked the government to send a list of six senior cops to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The new DGP will be selected from a panel of three to be selected by the UPSC from among these six names. So far so good, but the CAT has identified the six officers whose name has to be forwarded. This includes the name of a cop who retired a few months ago! It is not clear whether the inclusion of a superannuated cop is part of some legalistic interpretation by the CAT or a case of plain oversight. Many cops say that had it not been a tribunal headed by a retired justice of a high court, they would have smelt a deliberate attempt to scuttle the chances of a strong contender. By the inclusion of the retired cop's name, strong contender Dinesh Reddy's name has got pushed out. If retired cop Alok Srivastava's name was not included, Dinesh Reddy (being the next senior-most cop) would have been in the consideration list for the top post. So has a fair chance been denied to Dinesh Reddy?