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Can CM Kiran continue in Cong?

  Ministers and MPs close to CM Kiran Kumar Reddy are now singing a different song on launching of new political party by him. Although, they are asserting that he will be stepping down very soon, they are now rubbishing the reports about launching of new party by him. Minister Sailajanath said that CM Kiran may not launch new political party. But, he is not saying any reason for it and what if not. It would be very embarrassing for him to continue in the party after going so heavy against his high command.   Even if he wants to continue in the party, he may not get due respect from his high command and also be prepared to work under someone, who until now has worked under him. Moreover, he has to find a strong reason for his continuation in the party and also a strong explanation to seek the votes of the people in the upcoming elections. So, all these factors may oblige him to leave the party. So, the only options left for him is to launch his own political party or retire from politics for ever as he promised to do so, if the T- Draft Bill is introduced in its present form.

Is Arvind Kejriwal afraid to continue as CM?

  Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal got into power amid high expectations, but within a month he proved that he is incapable to run the government. He has tried to distract the people and the political parties by staging dharna at Rail Bhavan few weeks ago. Later, his government picked-up a fight with former CM of Delhi Shiela Dikshith and some others over different issues. Now, he is saying that he is ready to quit, if he couldn’t pass the Janlokpal Bill, which needs the support of BJP and Congress parties.   He seems to be afraid to hold his position as Chief minister of a tiny state like Delhi, so is he seeking excuse to quit with Janlokpal Bill. Perhaps, he might have realized that it is virtually impossible to implement all the poll promises made by his party during assembly elections. His government might have also realized that it couldn’t wipe out the corruption out of the administration and not even make it work properly for the people.   Although, there are no pressures on his government to immediately implement all the poll promises, Arvind Kejriwal seems keen to quit at the earliest. Actually, first he and his ministers would have tried to get hold on their government rather than trying to hit the media with one reason or the other. But, they seems realized that they are incapable of handling such tasks and so is looking for an excuse to get rid of their own government. Arvind Kejriwal and his team are just wasting a golden opportunity to prove their honesty not if their mettle.   Their failure also makes the people not to vote for such small parties that come with tall promises. They also forces the people to return to same old political horses-BJP and Congress. If Arvind Kejriwal steps down taking excuse with Janlokpal Bill, then he will be the first CM in the country, who is accepting his inability to run a government.   Obviously, no one can blame the grand old lady Shiela Dikshith anymore, who runs the Delhi government for 15 years continuously. No one can blame Congress party also as it has extended its support to popular Aam Admi party, honoring the people’s verdict.

What forces Cong. firmly clings to its decision?

  By now Congress might have realized that it is riding on the tiger by gambling with bifurcation issue. Although, it expects a lot out of it, it may gain nothing out of it, because people of both regions are quite unhappy with the T-Bill. However, if it fails to pass the T-Bill in the parliament, Congress not only wiped-out of Telangana, but also turns the situation very critical as tempers may sharply raises and hatred between Andhra and Telangana people in twin cities may lead to virtual clashes and create law and order problems. Perhaps, this one reason that forces Congress high command to go ahead with T-Bill. If the bill defeated, Telangana sentiment will dominate the elections and it will turn in favor of TRS party only. However, Congress can’t expect to win at least handful of seats in Telangana, even if it passes the T-Bill, but if TRS refuses to merge or enter poll alliance with it. So, it can do nothing expect blindly going ahead with its decision.

TDP to serve no-confidence notice against UPA

  Even before Congress high command could forget about the insult that it has faced with the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and the Congress leaders’ dharna conducted at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Seemandhra TDP MPs are going to serve no-confidence notice against UPA government today. They are said to be collected around 60 MPs signatures in support of their move. If, Speaker Meira Kumar take-up and allow it for voting, though it may not topple the government, definitely it would be another insult for Congress party and UPA government, that too just before the end of its present term. Congress has already faced such humiliation in the hands of its own MPs attempts before by its very own MPs and is now going to face it from opposition parties also. Perhaps, Congress has never faced this kind of humiliation in its 125 years of history.

Lakshmi Manchu Into Politics?

      If rumors are to be believed, Lakshmi Manchu was approached by members of the Telugu Desam Party to contest as the MP candidate from Chandragiri constituency. However, it is heard that Lakshmi has not taken any firm decision on this matter. If she nods her head to this proposal, we can see our multi-talented lady of Tollywood in AP politics as well. With, Lakshmi's father already running a school and other charitable activities, it will work as an added advantage for the actress. Let's keep our fingers crossed until we receive an official confirmation on this.   It has become a common scene these days seeing people entering and leaving a party. New members are showing interest in joining politics which is definitely a positive sign. As  elections are not really far away, all parties are trying to have the most eminent candidates, especially from the film industry who are the major crowd pullers. It is good as long as the changes create a positive impact in a common man's life.  

President Approves T-Bill?

  According to reports, President Pranab Mukharji, who is currently in Maharashtra tour has signed the bifurcation bill without raising any objections on it, sent to him by the Centre. If, so the bill may be presented in the Parliament on Monday or Tuesday, ahead of schedule announced by Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.   On other end, back at home CM Kiran Kumar Reddy is also reported to be planning to quit his post on the same day when the bill is presented in the Parliament. If, so how the state government can conduct the vote-on-account budget sessions of State Assembly is a big question. Centre may have to find an immediate replacement for him or ask him to quit after the sessions are over on February 13th.   Appointing an interim CM would be a difficult task for it as no one is acceptable to other region in the prevailing situation. If, the Centre imposes President’s Rule on the state, then it would be nothing but cutting down its own powers ahead of the general elections. So, Centre may appoint one of its loyalists like Botsa Satyanarayana or K. Jana Reddy as interim CM of the state to keep the power in its hand until last day of the elections.

CM keen to resign: Lagadapati

  Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal told the media “CM Kiran Kumar Reddy is keen to resign to his post. He consulted us asking for our opinion. We have suggested him to wait until 21st February. We assured him that we will with him in his fight to keep the state united. He also should keep us in mind while taking any decision that affects our political lives. We all feel humiliated with our high command’s attitude. Definitely we will take revenge on it when it tables the T-bill in the Parliament. We will not let the Parliament pass the bill. We have our plans to stop the bill in Parliament. I appeal all Seemandhra MPS and Union Ministers to strongly oppose and vote against the T-Bill in Parliament.”   It is surprising to hear him say so, while party state political in-charge Digvijay Singh has just issued a conduct certificate to CM Kiran Kumar Reddy and all others as loyal party leaders.

Modi Keen About Developing Northeast

      Narendra Modi was overwhelmed with the kind of response that received during the rallyover ‘New Hope New Manipal’ at Imphal. Modi mentioned that the region has so much resources and very bright youngsters who are talented in different areas. However, Northeast has still not come in par with other regions and that is Modi’s concern. He said that the inadequacy and lack of governance by Congress for years has led to drug trafficking, corruption, fake encounters and so on in this region. Modi also mentioned that the Northeast region has everything that is required to become the next IT hub. He said that the current generation of Northeast has a good command over English language and technology. But their talent hasn’t been explored so far. He mentioned that only Vajpayee did something good to the region by creating a ministry of development in Northeast.  Modi promised to do his best to take the Northeast region to a higher level.  

Too Many Amendments - No Use to Common Men

      India became independent in 1947 and till date we are still modifying our constitutional amendments. Too many laws are being created year by year and there seems to be no use because of it. Only a new country needs constant amendments since they have no base. India is only turning more ungovernable because of new laws. In fact, we are currently in the stage of implementing laws and not pulling in new ones.   Talking about USA, the country has managed with only 27 law amendments in their 238 years of independence. On an average, it is like one amendment every decade. But in our country, we can see at least 2 constitutional amendments made on a yearly basis even after 66 years of independence. Leaders of the US had to amend their law only 27 times since they had a forward visionary to benefit all their citizens. Whereas our leaders had only been amending laws for electoral and ancillary business gains. All that a common man receives is confusion and disappointment. Where is our nation heading to ?? When are we going to wake up ?? When are we going to choose what is right ??

Did Cong. set deadline for President to return the T-Bill?

  Home Minister Shinde has announced that the T-Bill will be presented into Rajya Sabha on February 12th. His announcement prior to President’s approval of the bill passed by Cabinet, is raising two questions. 1.Did President Pranab assured him that he will approve the bill without any delay on his part? 2. Or the Centre has set a deadline to President to sign the bill before that date? Otherwise, how he assumes that President will approve and dispatch the bill before February 12th.   If we observe how the T-Bill is sailing smooth from day one of its journey, Congress seems has a specific schedule for every stage of the T-bill. Probably, it is moving ahead maintaining the same pace and spirits only after convincing the President to extend his support all the way.

The Global 50 Most Powerful Women Business '14

        The FORTUNE list of The Global 50 Most Powerful Women In Business is out with the new head of General Motors, Mary Barra, who has made it to the top of Fortune’s first list of the most powerful women in global business. We have PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, who is third on the list and ICICI’s Chanda Kochhar who moved from the 33rs rank in 2007 to the 18th spot this year are the only two Indian women on the list for 2014. U.S. based Indra Nooyi -58, the Chairman, CEO of  PepsiCo , who  dropped from the second rank last  year to No 3 this time has  the distinction of doubling up  outside sales the company in her seven years of her run in PepsiCo . The international markets now make up about half of the company's $65.5 billion in revenue which have increased the product and consumer base of the company. Fifty two year old Chanda Kochhar, the Managing Director, CEO of ICICI Bank who leads the second-largest bank in India, with  over $124 billion in assets, $1.5 billion in profit, and 3,588 branches across the country and with offices spread over 19 countries across the world making her the only Indian woman to be featured in the list for 2014.   The Global 50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2014 1. Mary Barra    GM       USA 2. Ginni Rometty   IBM USA 3. Indra Nooyi   PepsiCo USA 4. Maria  de Gracas Silva Foster Petrobras Brazil 5. Ellen Kullman DuPont    USA 6. Irene Rosenfeld Mondelez  USA 7. Marillyn Hewson Lockheed Martin USA 8. Meg Whitman Hewlett Packard  USA 9. Patricia Woertz  Archer  Daniels Midland    USA 10. Gail Kelly  Westpac      Australia 11. Sheryl Sandberg Facebook    USA 12. Phebe Novakovic General Dynamics  USA 13. Safra Catz  Oracle    USA 14. Marissa Mayer Yahoo      USA 15. Alison Cooper   Imperial Tobacco Britain 16. Güler Sabanci Sabanci Holding  Turkey 17.  Deb Henretta Procter & Gamble  USA 18.  Chanda Kochhar  ICICI Bank  India  19.  Sheri  McCoy Avon  USA  20.  Susan Wojcicki Google USA  21.  Ornella Barra     Alliance Boots  Britain  22.  Chua Sock Koong  Singapore Telecommunications   Singapore  23. Annika    FalkengrenSEB Sweden  24. Ursula Burns   Xerox    USA 25. Carol Meyrowitz   TJX Companies USA 26. Ho Ching  Temasek   Singapore 27. Anne Sweeney Disney  USA 28. Patricia  BarbizetKering France 29. Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments   USA 30. Denise Morrison  Campbell Soup USA 31. Mary Callahan Erdoes JP Morgan USA 32. Elizabeth Corley  Allianz Global Investors Germany 33. Karen Agustiawan Pertamina Indonesia 34. Renée James  Intel   USA 35. Harriet Green ThomasCook  Britain 36. Pam Nicholson Enterprise  USA 37. Bridget Van Kralingen IBM USA 38. Nancy McKinstry Wolters Kluwer  Netherlands 39. Rosalind Brewer Wal-Mart Stores USA 40. Sandra E. Peterson Johnson & Johnson USA 41. Ana Patricia  BotínSantander U.K.Britain 42. Dong MingzuGree  Electric Appliances  China 43. Lubna Olayan Olayan Financing Saudi Arabia 44. Heather Bresch   Mylan USA 45. Ilene Gordon Ingredion USA 46. Carolyn McCall  Easy Jet   Britain 47.  Kwon Seon-joo Industrial Bank of Korea  Korea 48. Isabelle Ealet  Goldman Sachs Britain 49. Zhang Xin  SOHO China China 50. Angela Ahrendts  Burberry Britain 

Will the last ball ever come?

  So far, many Congress MLAs and their followers are patiently waiting for the new party reported to be launched by CM Kiran Kumar Reddy or some of his close aide. There were speculations that he would quit his post and party after giving a lengthy speech in state assembly when the T-Bill is submitted. But, he let the debate continue until last minute and moved a resolution against it, but didn’t quit his post.   Then, everyone predicts that his party high command is going to dismiss him from party before he sits for a dharna at New Delhi that is quite insulting and damaging to the party reputation. But, reports pop-up in the media that high command will take action against him after Rajya Sabha polls. But, neither had he resigned nor his high command takes any action against him.   Now, the buzz is that he is planning to quit either after seeing President’s reaction on the T-Bill or after it is submitted in the Parliament. Perhaps, later we may hear that he may be planning to quit once President sign the T-bill approved by Parliament or after elections or high command may dismiss him after passing the T-Bill. So, no one knows when his last ball comes and when he and his party conclude this game.

RS elections results announced

  Counting of votes of Rajya Sabha elections was completed an hour ago. The six official candidates of Congress, TDP and TRS have been declared won the elections. Congress candidates KVP Ramachandra rao and T.Subbirami Reddy each got 46 MLAs votes and MA Khan got 49 votes. TDP candidates Garikapati Mohan rao and Thota Sita Mahalakshmi each got 38 votes. K.Keshav rao, who banked upon Congress votes got total 26 votes only, but managed to pass with second priority votes.

Cabinet approves T-Bill, Rejects UT Proposal

  It seems Congress high command has developed some sentiment of submitting T-Bill as table item in every crucial meeting. Today also it has been introduced as table item in the Cabinet meeting held at Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh’s residence. Cabinet has approved the T-Bill without any major changes to existing one.   Cabinet rejects the proposal of making Hyderabad as union territory. Financial package to backward areas in Rayalaseema and North Coastal Andhra has been approved. The villages that submerge under Polavaram project, which are now in Kammam district will be merged with West Godavari district for averting inter-state disputes. Center will grant the necessary funds, clearances for this project. Centre will bear entire expense of constructing new capital of residuary Andhra Pradesh state and also de-notify the forest areas to build the new capital. Experts committee will decide about the location of the new capital. Other than, there are no major changes made to the existing T-Bill.   T-Bill will be sent to President Pranab MUkharji tonight for his approval.

3 More MPs Against PM

      In addition to the list of MPs who had served their no confidence motion against the Manmohan Singh government, three more have been added. Harsha Kumar of Congress, M Venu Gopala Reddy of Telugu Desam Party and M Raja Mohan Reddy of YSR Congress moved their no confidence motion against the PM regarding the T Bill issue. This chaotic situation seems to be prevailing for quite sometime now and similar motions were passed even on Thursday. However, they were not taken up due to a lot of commotion which resulted in the adjournment of the house for the day.

CM Kiran Apologizes

      Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy faced major flak from Telangana leaders after the huge controversy that took place at the AP Bhavan in our capital city. Kiran was blamed for not intervening when women ministers from his state were being manhandled by police of Delhi. Minister Geetha Reddy broke down in tears in front of the media and also took this issue to the President. All three women ministers were trying to stop Kiran from heading to the 'Dharna' at Jantar Mantar as they felt it was not fair on his part to incline towards one region when he has been appointed as the CM for the entire state.   Following all the negative comments, hues and cries, CM Kiran finally relented and apologized. If reports are to be believed, Kiran personally called Geetha Reddy, D K Aruna and Sunitha Lakshma Reddy on phone to say Sorry for his attitude.

I&B Minister Manish Tewari byte at ICAI function

Manish Tewari ICAI Function : Minister for Information & Broadcasting Shri Manish Tewari addressing at the ICAI Awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting  

SC rejects petitions filed against T-Bill

  The Supreme Court bench led by Justice Dattu and Justice Babde has dismissed all nine petitions filed against T-Bill today after hearing arguments made by senior advocates Nariman and Mohanlal Sharma on behalf of the petitioners. The arguments continued for around one and half hours, but at the end the apex court bench has made it clear that it doesn’t want to interfere in the bifurcation process at this stage.   The bench also said that it doesn’t find any difference between the previous and present petitions filed opposing bifurcation. Supreme Court also ignored the points raised by both lawyers of petitioners about Centre misusing article-3 and Assembly resolution passed against the T-Bill. The bench has not shown any interest to define the legal angle of Assembly rejecting the T-Bill sent by Centre.   Hence, a major hurdle in bifurcation process is cleared with Supreme Court’s latest verdict. This will encourage Cabinet to forward the T-Bill to President and he may approve and return to Cabinet without any second thought. However, if he wants to consider several appeals made by ruling and opposition parties including CM Kiran Kumar Reddy, he may put the bill on hold, but unlikely.   Next, if the Centre declares Hyderabad as union territory for 10 years, even TRS, which is fighting for separate state will oppose the bill in Parliament. So, Centre may scrap this idea and may push the bill through Parliament adopting ‘voice vote.’

Seemandhra Lobby presses for Hyderabad as UT

      The Group of Ministers (GoM) Seemandhra Lobby met again with the Union Cabinet, slated to take up the recommendations of the GoM for consideration at its special Telangana-centered meeting which will have to clear the UT model for the joint capital status to be held at 4.30 pm on Friday. Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, also the head of GoM, and key member Jairam Ramesh briefed the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi about its recommendation which has been given a political clearance by Sonia to forward the same for the approval of the full cabinet meeting to be held today evening. Their main recommendation is that Hyderabad be made a Union Territory for the next 10 years as it will serve as the joint capital of the two states of Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh after the division. A move which is vehemently being opposed by the Telangana parties and the TRS as this gives special powers to the governor with regard to law and order and realty issues. Apart from recommending that Hyderabad be made in to a UT, the GoM  has also asked for the following recommendations  which include: villages in Telangana's Khammam district to be combined (which may be submerged) with Seemandhra's East and West Godavari districts to avoid inter-state disputes while finishing the project.  Also the amendment to Section 46 (1) of the draft Telangana bill to enable the 14th Finance Commission to look at the available resources of the two states and making a viable financial package for  both states. Jairam Ramesh is also in talks with the BJP explaining the recommendations of the Seemandhra leaders regarding this.