Technocrats or bureaucrats? That is the question doing the rounds in government circles in the wake of repeated allegations from BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao who has been having a go at the Congress saying that ever since the new government took charge, there have been power supply problems. KCR says his government appointed non-IAS technocrats with thorough knowledge of all affairs electrical, which ensured trouble-free power supply, and now that the Congress government has appointed IAS officers to head power utilities, the power supply situation has nosedived. Bureaucratic circles, however, are strongly rejecting KCR’s claims stating the Congress government appointed IAS officer Syed Ali Murtuza Rizvi as head of Transco, and Genco, IAS officer Musharraf Farooqui as CMD of TSSPDCL, and IAS officer Karnati Varun Reddy as CMD of TSNPDCL. They are not just IAS officers but technocrats too with academic qualifications to match, is their contention. Rizvi graduated in electrical engineering from IIT-Kanpur, while Farooqui has a degree in electrical engineering from IIT-Madras, while Varun Reddy graduated from IIT-Bombay in computer science.
LOK SABHA ELECTION FAR DEARER TO BJP
Different strokes for different folks. Such appears to be the case with the BJP in Telangana. With the Congress aggressively pursuing BRS MLAs to join it, a senior BJP leader on why his party was lagging behind on this front had this to say, “Our’s is an elderly men’s party. Our leaders are usually late to wake up. This is like the old adage of a dog barking six months after the house is looted.” On a more serious note, the leader said this could be the time to encourage defections, but if BRS MLAs are admitted, they should first resign from their seats or else all kinds of wrong signals will be sent to the public. This is a problem as the MLAs have five full years of their term, left having been elected just late last year to the Assembly. However, this was apparently no longer an issue when an MP from the BRS joined the BJP. After all, the party needed candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, is the explanation from the BJP.
WEDDINGS THE NEXT BEST CAMPAIGN ARENA
Couples getting married can expect some surprises during the wedding ceremonies, with friends and relatives planning them. But when a politician does that, it makes news. As part of his election campaign, BJP MP from Nizamabad Arvind Dharmapuri has been attending more than 10 weddings a day in his parliamentary constituency. Happy occasions are a good place to be, but, for him, it is also an opportunity to interact with the people. Different communities and areas witnessed MP Arvind attending weddings as a special attraction. Newly married couples and other guests in the marriage function halls have been vying to take selfies with the BJP MP. BRS and Congress MP candidates Bajireddy Govardhan and T. Jeevan Reddy are also making similar rounds and all these leaders are making the time to do so. Marriages may be made in heaven but for these leaders, the weddings have come as a heaven sent opportunity to do some quick campaigning.
JAGAN’S JIBES ONLY EMPOWERING NAIDU
Election campaigns can be potboilers. If the back and forth between the YSRC and the TD are any indication, one is brewing in Andhra Pradesh, at least as far as contests between characters in a Tollywood movie are concerned. It all began with YSRC supremo and AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy calling TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu ‘Pasupati’, the name of the villainous vengeful spirit in the movie ‘Arundhati’. Naidu hit back saying Pasupati is Lord Shiva and, like the God, he too holds all the poison thrown at him in his throat to safeguard the interests of the people. Earlier too, Jagan had likened Naidu to ‘Chandramukhi’, a character from a horror film, and cautioned the people not to support him as he would suck their blood if elected to power.
THE TALE OF TD AND THE YELLOW JERSEYS
What has a cricket match got to do with the election campaign in Andhra Pradesh? At a time anything appears to be good enough for the party to get talked about by the people, the TD has latched on to the yellow jerseys and caps worn by CSK fans in the IPL cricket league. Some TD folks who were watching a Delhi Capitals vs CSK game were in the CSK attire and the party social media quickly began spreading the word that the yellow jerseys were in support of the TD, and had nothing to do with support to CSK.
