Etala Rajendar’s assimilation into BJP philosophy, culture and tradition and practices appears to be complete. Etala who joined the TRS in 2003 was by then a recognised student leader with a strong left wing ideology. When he joined the BJP in 2021, it was to the other end of the political spectrum. Since his switch to the saffron party, he has slowly transformed, not just in thought and speech, but in dressing too. At a recent protest meeting of the BJP to extend support to Musi river project victims, Etala turned up with a saffron coloured waist-coat, leaving some wondering when he would don a RSS uniform and attend a RSS Shakha activity.
MPs, MLAs DEPUTED TO INTER-STATE PARTY DUTY
Gone are the days when a politician could take a break from the hurly burly of electioneering. After all, once the polls are over, one gets a five-year break. But that was then. Now, things are different with leaders from one state getting deputed to others as constituency in-charges, or with some other election-related duty in states going to the polls. And with demand for Telugu-speaking leaders from Telangana pretty high in Nanded, Chandrapur and Yavatmal districts and also in Mumbai, Pune, Sholapur and Nagpur cities, leaders from Telangana may be tramping through Maharashtra. Roughing it out on the trail for them can either be a perk — if their party wins in the constituency they have been deployed — or, if it loses, it can be a reflection of what kind of a job they did. Among those facing this situation is Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind campaigning in Nanded Parliament constituency going for a bypoll along with the Maharashtra Assembly elections, while BJP MLA Dhanpal Suryanarayana Gupta has also been sent to encourage Telugu voters there to support his party. Among the other notables in Maharashtra doing duty for their party are minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Congress MLA P. Sudarshan Reddy, who represents Bodhan Assembly constituency in Nizamabad district that borders Maharashtra.
POOR SHOW AT FIRECRACKER BOUT
Once a leader… we all know how that saying goes, or rather how a “once leader” feels about the issue. Such is the case with Kakinada former MLA Dwarampudi Chandrasekhara Reddy of the YSRC around whom local politics are expected to pivot, and with some good reason too, at least as far as local Jana Sena cadres are concerned, with allegations that the current Kakinada MLA of the TD, Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao (Kondababu), is a “front” for the former MLA and that the two leaders have business dealings. The fuse had been burning for a while but the issue blew up recently after the Kondababu group allegedly exerted pressure on officials to allocate a Diwali cracker shop on the busy Main Road, which of course, the officials refused to. To save face, the TD workers launched a protest against the Jana Sena’s Kakinada Lok Sabha member T. Uday Srinivas alleging that he was in league with Dwarampudi and hence the cracker shop was not permitted. In the end, the brouhaha between the TD and its ally Jana Sena turned out to be a dud with Kondababu enigmatically smiling away at the question of the cracker shop.
ROW AMONG TD AND JANA SENA?
The row between TD activists and Jana Sena MLA Lokam Madhavi, representing Nellimarla in Vizianagaram district, considered a wealthy member in the Assembly, reached a peak in the recent zilla parishad meeting. Madhavi, not used to instant political pandemoniums, walked out of a meeting in a huff after TD leaders attacked her “for ignoring them”. The trouble began when Markfed chairman Karothu Bangarraju raised a question on a local problem addressing the MLA, and Madhavi, instead of responding, asked him to wait. This angered Bangarraju and his followers who began protesting, resulting in Madhavi walking off from the meeting in a huff.
POLITICOS BATTLE IT OUT OVER COTTON
Politicians are good at jumping on to the bandwagon if that means some benefit for themselves among the public. And, in Adilabad, the issue is all about cotton. A fresh fight is raging between BRS and BJP leaders in the district over cotton prices. Not the ones that are being offered in Adilabad but what they are in Gujarat. Former BRS minister Jogu Ramanna has been at it, after BJP leaders began saying that farmers in Gujarat were getting Rs 8,000 per quintal for the fluffy crop, but in Adilabad it was just Rs 6,500 for the same quality of cotton. At the receiving end of Jogu’s diatribe are BJP MLA Payal Shankar and Adilabad MP Godam Nagesh, being accused of failing to ensure Gujarat cotton prices to Adilabad cotton farmers and how they failed to do so by failing to impress the Central government on the issue. Payal’s protestations that Gujarat and Telangana are different and can’t be compared even when it comes to the price of cotton, at least for now, has not bailed out the BJP leaders with Jogu still after them on the issue.
