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Chiranjeevi to be Made Central Minister

Sources say that the Praja Rajyam chief K Chiranjeevi will be made a minster of state with independent charge in the Union Cabinet. This has been already informed to Mr. Chiranjeevi. As per the norms, first he would be made a member of the Rajya Sabha and then will be inducted as a minister. For this, the party high command is thinking of making the incumbent Rajya Sabha member N Janardhan Reddy a Governor, so that his seat falls vacant and Chiranjeevi can be accommodated in it. By sending former CMs like Mr Janardhan Reddy and Mr K. Rosaiah to Raj Bhavans, the AICC will also be able to fill the vacancies for the gubernatorial posts with Andhra leaders as there has been no Governor from the state in the last three years. However, with the formal merger of the PR into the Congress a week away and prospects of a Union Cabinet reshuffle looming large, the time seems ripe for Mr Janardhan Reddy to make way for Mr Chiranjeevi.

Hunt For APCC Chief From Telangana Begins

According to sources, hunt for APCC chief has begun with elections of the four presiding officers in the AP Assembly and Legislative Council are over. It seems that the Congress Central Leadership will appoint the Pradesh Congress Committee chief within the next few days and indications are there that it will be someone from Telangana. It is said that the Andhra Pradesh Congress affairs in-charge, Mr Gulam Nabi Azad, will discuss the issue with the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and will finalise the PCC candidate before he leaves on a foreign trip on June 7. It is also likely that along with the PCC chief, the higher education minister, Mr C. Damodar Raj Narasimha, will also be officially announced as the Deputy Chief Minister in the next few days. Initially the Congress had been consideredering the names of senior ministers, Mr Kanna Laxminarayana and Mr Botsa Satyanarayana, for the post of PCC chief but there was a growing resentment among Telangana leaders. Some of them even issued statements criticising the party leadership's decision of "allotting only deputies' posts" to Telangana region and keeping the key posts for Seemandhra leaders. According to sources, five names from Telangana region are in consideration for the PCC president post in AP. Foremost of them is, of course Ponnala Laxmaiah, whose name almost springs up everytime whenever PCC chief is being altered. Ponnala belongs to Munnuru Kapu community and as persons of this community have served as PCC presidents in the past, this time Ponnala may not be preferred, it is said. With Mr Md. Jani declining the Legislative Council's deputy chairman's post, there is hardly any big post held by a Muslim in the state. Though the Congress has been taking credit for holding the minority vote bank, the same has not reflected in terms of posts. Thus the name of former minister Mr Shabbir Ali and Rajya Sabha member Mr M.A. Khan are also doing the rounds. Mr Shabbir has lost two successive elections and is considered very close to Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and that is being seen as a minus point. Mr Khan, meanwhile is not a well-known face in the state though he has been in the Congress for decades and his closeness to Dr K.V. P. Ramachandra Rao is also being examined. The other names doing the rounds are former MP Mr Mallu Ravi and former minister Mr Sambhani Chandrasekhar, both of whom are SCs.

TDP Challenges Jagan Mohan Reddy

At a press conference on Sunday, Telugu Desam Party senior leaders Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Thummala Nageswara Rao and A evanth Reddy challenged YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to pull down the government, if he can. They asked him to parade 100 Congress MLAs, whom Jagan claims are his followers, before the governor. If Jagan dares to do that, the TDP will also parade their 90 MLAs before the governor in unison. Lambasting Jagan Mohan Reddy and his mother Vijayalakshmi, who got elected as MLA from Pulivendula recently, the TDP leaders said that the YSR Congress had missed an opportunity to put the government in the dock. Even Vijayalakshmi, who took oath as MLA, did not attend the session held to elect the Speaker of the House. "This shows that either Jagan does not have the support of that many members as he claims or there is some kind of 'match-fixing' between him and the Congress high command," the TDP leaders said.  

Nadendla Manohar Elected Speaker of AP Assembly

Nadendla Manohar was Saturday (today) elected the new speaker of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly while Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was elected his deputy. Manohar, who has been deputy speaker since 2009, polled 158 votes while K.E. Krishnamurthy of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) secured 90 votes in the 294-member house. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Communist Party of India (CPI), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Lok Satta and YSR Congress party abstained from voting to maintain equal distance from both the Congress and the TDP. All 89 members of the TDP and the lone CPI-M legislator voted for Krishnamurthy. The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) supported the Congress candidate. As many as 23 legislators of the Congress, PRP and MIM were absent from the house for various reasons. The YSR Congress, which has only one legislator, abstained but Congress legislators considered rebels and loyal to YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy voted for Manohar, son of former chief minister Nadendla Bhaskar Rao. The post of the speaker was vacant since November last year when N. Kiran Kumar Reddy became the chief minister. Vikramarka, who was government chief whip, was elected the new deputy speaker. He polled 164 votes against 88 secured by his rival Suddala Devaiah of the TDP. Earlier, protem speaker J.C. Diwakar Reddy declared Manohar elected as the 17th speaker by a voice vote, but following objections from the TDP agreed for a division. The party also took exception to the decision to the conduct of voting by show of hands. It alleged that the legislature secretary had gone back on the decision to hold the election through secret ballot. The one-day session of the state legislature was specially convened to elect the speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly and the chairman and vice-chairman of the legislative council. The council, the upper house of the state legislature, will meet in the evening but the election of the Congress nominees has become a mere formality with the opposition deciding not to contest. A. Chakrapani is all set to be unanimously elected the chairman for the second consecutive term while N. Vidyasagar will be the new chairman. The election of the speaker and deputy speaker was significant in view of the no-trust motion moved by the TDP against the government. With as many as 22 rebel legislators of the ruling party Friday attending the meeting with Jaganmohan Reddy, it was cautious on the election to the key posts. However, Jaganmohan Reddy continued the suspense over no-confidence motion by making legislators loyal to him vote for the Congress nominee. The Congress, which has 155 members in the assembly, is confident of defeating the no-trust motion as it enjoys support of the PRP and MIM, which have 18 and seven legislators respectively.  Nadendla Manohar Elected As New Andhra Pradesh Speaker   CM Kiran Speech After Manohar Elected As Speaker   Chandrababu Speech After Manohar Elected As Speaker   Chiru Congratulates Speaker Nadendla Manohar In Assembly

300 MCA Colleges in AP Fear closure

The All India Council for Technical Education has decided to permit 10 new MBA colleges in the state this year apart from enhancing the intake in another 200 existing colleges. This will make room for another 6000 more MBA seats. However, there will be no change in MCA seats this year as there were no applications to set up new colleges or for enhancing the intake. The AP State Council of Higher Education is planning to conduct ICET counselling for admissions to MBA and MCA courses in the first week of July. The counselling will be totally web-based. A total of 1,26,454 students have qualified in ICET this year, while the total seats available in both MBA and MCA courses are 1,28,488, which means nearly 2,000 seats will go vacant even if all the students are admitted. The state currently has 713 MCA colleges with an intake of 50,148 seats. Last year, there were no admissions in nearly 100 MCA colleges, and admissions were in single digits in another 200 colleges. College managements fear that nearly 300 of the 713 MCA colleges will face closure.

Baba Ramdev May Observe One Day Token Fast

The second round of talks between Baba Ramdev and the government seem to be making good progress amidst indications that issues raised by the yoga guru were nearing resolution. The marathon meeting between Congress ministers Kapil Sibal and Subodh Kant Sahay, from government side, and Ramdev discussed various demands raised by the yoga guru, who had threatened to go on an indefinite satayagraha from Saturday against corruption and black money. The government on Friday initiated a fresh round of talks with Baba Ramdev to persuade him to give up his proposed agitation. Before the crucial talks with Ramdev, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram and some of their colleagues went into a huddle to prepare a draft for the meeting. Making all-out efforts to placate the yoga guru, the government made senior ministers stay put in the capital. Hectic back-channel efforts he been on for the last two days to placate Ramdev, who has raised issues of black money and corruption, as the government is keen to avert an Anna Hazare-like protest on the streets. The meeting between Kapil Sibal, Subodh Kant Sahay and Ramdev came after the Baba's address to his supporters where he indicated a softening of his stance. "...Barring one or two issues, a consensus seems to be emerging between us and the government," said the yoga guru, who had held his first round of talks with senior ministers, including Mukherjee, who had met him at the airport after his arrival here on June 1. Sources indicated that almost all issues raised by the Baba were nearing resolution and there could be a one-day token fast by Ramdev and his supporters.  

Baba Ramdev - Biography

As Swamis go, he is rather young - turned 45 last year. Before Baba Ramdev became the latest crusader against corruption, he was best known for his efforts to popularise yoga among increasingly health conscious Indians. Ramdev is largely a television and video phenomenon. He fired the imagination of an entire segment of TV watchers, who tuned out of daily soap opera to tune into and do yoga with Baba Ramdev. Now, thousands turn up at his camps to do mass yoga with him. A wiry man with a full flowing black beard, hair parted and tied back, in red robes, the abiding vision of Ramdev is of a man demonstrating very difficult yoga asanas. He has a considerable following and people flock to his institutes in Haridwar, near Dehradun. The yoga guru claims to cure many ailments through yoga and ayurveda and has courted controversy with his claims of curing AIDS and cancer with yoga, though he later clarified that he had only said yoga helped provide relief to those with AIDS. As Baba Ramdev's popularity has grown in the era of multiple television channels, he has found not just celebrity, but political ambition too. A year ago he announced that he would launch a new political party - the Bharat Swabhiman - to "cleanse the system." Ramdev said that he would not contest elections but that his party would contest all 543 Lok Sabha seats in the next elections on a manifesto that shall address black money and corruption as the key issues. And those are the issues that Ramdev has brought out now. In a change of plans, he said he would launch a satyagraha instead of a party. He plans to do that tomorrow in the national capital. With a hunger-strike, much in the manner of social activist Anna Hazare, who had galvanized mass support with his hunger strike against corruption two months ago. Both Ramdev and Anna are part of a citizens effort to goad the government into making more stringent laws against corruption.      Ramdev  was born in 1965 in a Haryana village called Alipur. He was named Ramkishan Yadav. Various biographies say Ramkishan attended school till class 8 and then joined a gurukul where he learnt Sanskrit and Yoga. He later became a sanyasi (one who renounces the world) and took the name Baba Ramdev  and began to teach yoga. He later moved to Haridwar, where he continued to offer free yoga lessons. His followers claim he has studied the Hindu scriptures deeply and even taught them in various gurukuls. Ramdev has set up several trusts, gurukuls and foundations and conducts yoga camps and classes throughout the world. He is known for his focus on pranayama, the ancient breathing exercises that are a fundamental part of yoga. Baba Ramdev muscled his way into India's consciousness in 1995 when his mass yoga sessions started being televised. He used his classes to preach against corruption in the system, and occasionally to promote a swadeshi ideology that was welcomed by saffron groups.  Source: NDTv.  

2G Scam: Dayanidhi Maran Refutes Allegations

Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran refuted the charges that his family owned Sun Television Network was a beneficiary of pay-offs by a Malaysian company which benefitted from equity sold by Aircel. Talking to reporters at the Chennai airport here on Thursday night, he said, "The allegations are a systematically planned campaign to malign me and my party." The textile minister said that he became a "political untouchable" after tendering his resignation in May 2008. "After I resigned in May, there could have been an investigation. That was my position then. I was a political untouchable during that period. When I was not a minister nobody wanted to get in touch with me. I have never helped anyone. I was pushed out of political circle," he said. Citing a letter from the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd when he was the Union telecom minister, Maran said, "The letter from BSNL shows, I have only one phone connection." "I wrote to the chief general manager and asked him to explain me, how many lines are there in my residence at Boat Club. Only One BSNL telephone connection, 24375100, was provided to me as a minister," he said. "If I have done wrong, I am ready to face any punishment. I do not need any sympathies and I have to be judged by the law. But if I am innocent, I should be given every right to protect myself and to prove my integrity," he said.    

Baba Ramdev to go Ahead with Hunger Strike

With Baba Ramdev insisting that his hunger strike against corruption will begin as scheduled on Saturday, the Congress core committee members along with Sonia Gandhi met the Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh and appraised him of the situation. Later the senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherji, Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram, Pawan Bansal, Subodh Kant Sahay, A K Anthoney met separately and discussed the issue. After the meeting Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal told the media that he will meet Baba Ramdev and the talks will continue. "As politicians we have to meet people. This shouldn't be seen as weakness. If the government is serious and Ramdev is serious, there should be no problem in resolving the issue," he said. Kapil Sibal and Subodh Kant Sahay are also likely to meet with Baba Ramdev. Sources informed that a draft is being prepared by the government on key issues raised by Baba Ramdev, which will be sent to the ministers and the yoga guru on Friday. The government is also holding talks with Baba Ramdev's associates to stop the yoga guru from taking up the fast. It is learnt that after the second round of talks today (03-06-11), Baba will hold a press confrence and come out with his final decision. According to Baba's associates, even though the government concedes to all the demands of Ramdev baba, he may go on fast for at least three days marking his protest against the corruption.    

TDP Decided to Pull Down Kiran Government

Telugu Desam MLAs and senior leaders of the party met at NTR Trust Bhavan to discuss about moving of a no-confidence motion against Kiran Kumar Reddy government. Speaking in the meeting, party chief Chandrababu Naidu came down heavily on the failures of central government as well as Kiran Kumar's government in the state. He listed at length how the government at the centre headed by a weak Prime Minister has failed to contain the rampant corruption in the country. He also spoke at length about the problems faced by the farmers in the state and how the state government failed in rescuing the farmers. Mr. Naidu emphasised on the necessity of bringing down the present government through a no-confidence motion. Accordingly it was decided to meet the Speaker and request him to convene a special session of the Assembly, since the Assembly hasn't been prorogued yet, to discuss problems of the farmers and put forth a no-confidence motion against the incompetent government. It was also decided in the meeting to contest in the ensuing election for the Speaker post for which notification has been issued today.        

Baba Ramdev: Exclusive Interview

Famous yoga guru Baba Ramdev is going to start indefinite hunger strike from 4 June at Ram Leele Maidan in Delhi as part of his fight against corruption. The yoga guru is mainly aiming to put pressure on the government to formulate stringent laws to bring back the black money stashed away in Swiss Banks. Though the central government is trying to woo Ramdev Baba in many ways to stop him from going on indefinite fast, the unrelenting Baba is maintaining an adamant attitude. Here's an exclusive interview of Ramdev Baba by ETV in which he explicitly tells what exactly he is fighting for.  

T-Congress MPs Meet Over T-Issue

The members of Parliament from Telangana region met twice on Wednesday at the residences of the Rajya Sabha member Dr K. Kesava Rao and the Bhongir Lok Sabha MP Mr Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. The meetings were held to discuss about Telangana agitation and it was decided to serve the centre with an ultimatum. The Congress MPs from Telangana set a deadline of 30 June for the centre to take a favourable decision on the statehood issue failing which they would take steps like fasts unto death, quitting the party and Parliament memberships. It was also decided to conduct a Telangana Congress leaders' meeting on June 5 with all MLAs, ministers and MPs of the region and to go to New Delhi from June 6 to 10 to present their case to Union ministers and central Congress party leaders.

Minister Jupally Krishna Rao Resignation Accepted

The Governor, Mr E.S.L. Narasimhan, accepted the resignation of the endowments minister, Mr Jupally Krishna Rao and allotted the endowments portfolio to the information and technology minister, Mr Ponnala Laxmaiah. Mr Krishna Rao had met the Governor on Tuesday and submitted his resignation. The Governor then forwarded the resignation letter to the Chief Minister for his advice. After getting the advice from Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday, the Governor accepted the resignation. This is the second resignation accepted by the Governor. Earlier, the agriculture minister, Mr Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, also resigned from the Cabinet after his tenure as MLC came to an end on April 30. The agriculture portfolio is presently being handled by the higher education minister, Mr C. Damodar Raj Narasimha. The number of ministers has dropped from 40 to 38 by Wednesday.

Congress Bids Adieu to YSR Legacy

Putting an end to YSR era in Andhra Pradesh, the Kiran Kumar government has done away with the former CM's photographs and name in all the government campaigns. Since CM Kiran Kumar Reddy came back from Delhi after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week, there has been a lot of change in government's outlook in case of claiming inheritance over YSR legacy. Consequent to Delhi instructions, the information and public relations (I&PR) department in AP has prepared three major advertisement campaigns related to Indiramma housing, women empowerment and farmers issues. All of them being telecast in the electronic media, statrting from this Wednesday, are without YSR photographs. They carry photographs of Kiran Kumar Reddy and in some places those of the Congress chief. With regard to the portraits of YSR at various offices in the secretariat, instructions have been given to bring them down too. Some ministers have already removed them. As per the sources, Sonia Gandhi is said to have instructed Kiran Kumar Reddy to do away with YSR legacy in the state. She is stated to have listed out two reasons for the congress to abandon YSR. One reason being that Jagan Mohan Reddy has emerged as the real inheritor of YSR legacy and there is no point in Congress shouldering it further as all the welfare schemes initiated by YSR are now being claimed by him. Secondly, it is time now for the congress to claim the welfare schemes like Rs 2-a-kg rice, Arogyasri, Indiramma housing, free power and Pavala Vaddi as its own.

Baba, Anna Give Jitters to UPA Government

With Baba Ramdev refusing to call off his plans to go on an indefinite hunger strike against corruption from Saturday, the government is already in jitters. Now adding to its wooes, Anna Hazare announced that he would be joining Baba Ramdev hunger strike from 5 June. Despite government's assurances on its seriousness of tackling corruption and black money, Ramdev has said he will go ahead with fast at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. He is insisting on concrete measures. His plans have put the government in a spot as he claims crores of people will join his 'satyagraha' against corruption. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay met Baba Ramdev for over two hours at the Delhi airport yesterday. The leaders briefed the PM on their discussions with Ramdev and are also understood to have discussed his proposals and ways to defuse the crisis. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too held an emergency meeting with senior Cabinet ministers last night to discuss how to deal with the yoga guru. The government clearly worried, doesn't want a repeat of an anti-corruption fast similar to that of Anna Hazare, which had galvanized thousands of people forcing the government to give in to his demands. According to sources, a team of Cabinet ministers will also meet him again to break the deadlock.    

ICET 2011 Results Released

ICET-2011 Results : ICET – 2011 the Integrated Common Entrance Test for MBA and MCA announced by AU Vice-Chancellor on Thursday morning. The Icet-2011 exam, held at 276 centres in the state and test was conducted in 25 cities on May 18. The results and final key will be available on www.icet2011.net from today June 2.

KCR Wants T-newspaper First Then T-state

K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), who is spearheading the telangana agitation, wants to bring out his 'Namaste Telangana' newspaper immediately. For this he has virtually set aside the third phase of Telangana movement to focus on launch of this Telugu news daily. In view of marathon meetings with the staff and administration of the newspaper since fortnight, KCR could not conduct any meeting with the party leaders to discuss about the next phase of Telangana movement, it is said. According to sources, KCR was visiting the head office of the newspaper located at Banajara Hills and meeting the staff regularly. He kept himself busy holding meetings with the newspaper staff and inquiring about the developments taking place with regard to logistic support and infrastructure facilities provided for the newspaper. Namaste Telangana would be simultaneously published from six places, Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Khammam, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Medak. Sources say that KCR wants to kick-start the T movement only after the daily has been launched as that would help him better in not only getting publicity but also in building the tempo and ensuring popularity for the newspaper. Due to his preoccupation with the newspaper launch arrangements, he had even decided to postpone the JAC meetings to finalise the action plan for T movement.  

YSR Congress Sets The Ball Rolling on No-confidence Motion

YSR Congress set the ball rolling yesterday on the issue of the no-confidence motion. Soon after the meeting of the central governing council in the city, its spokesperson Balineni Srinivasa Reddy told the media that the YSR Congress had the requisite numbers to bring down the Kiran government. "We will prove our strength when a no-trust vote is actually moved in the house. All I can say is that we have the necessary number of MLAs willing to support Jagan on the issue. Let the TDP take the initiative to table the no-trust vote," he said. On its part, the TDP demanded that the chief minister convene a special session of the assembly and prove his majority. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) joined in by stating that it would support a no-trust motion moved by any party. Responding to these demands, PCC president D Srinivas said that the Kiran regime was ready to prove its majority in the house any day. A no-confidence motion can be moved by even one MLA, but for it to be taken up for consideration, it requires the backing of one-tenth of the total strength of the house, which would mean 30 legislators in the case of Andhra Pradesh. Highly placed sources in the know how say, normally it is the governor who would convene a regular session of the assembly based on the advice of the chief minister and his cabinet. But under special circumstances wherein the majority of the state government is in doubt or needs to be proved, the governor can convene a special session. As per indications, the monsoon session of the state assembly is likely to be held in July this year. But any call on a special session can be made only by the governor. Now, it all depends on the governor E S L Narasimhan, who like any governor appointed by the government in power at the Centre, would weigh the options for the ruling party before making his call.  

Triple Solar, Lunar Eclipses in a Month

A rare phenomenon of solar eclipses are going to take place starting from today with two partial solar and one total lunar eclipse expected to be seen in a month's time. The first of the three, a partial solar eclipse, will be seen today. This eclipse, however, will not be visible from India. It will be visible from high latitudes in the Northern hemisphere, starting at sunrise time over Siberia and Northern China and Alaska. In fact, the eclipse begins at 0055 hrs IST on June 2. Eclipse chasers in India will get to witness a total lunar eclipse on June 15. This eclipse will be visible from the Indian region, Middle East, East Africa, South America and Australia. During the lunar eclipse, the moon will be completely covered by Earth's shadow from 11.52 pm on June 15 to 2.32 am on June 16. The last of the three eclipses will be another partial solar eclipse on July 1. This eclipse will also not be visible from India. It will be visible from southern latitudes, Antarctica.