Batsman googly: T-man bats for united AP state

Hyderabad: Social media was abuzz with conspiracy theories after the Election Commission allotted the ‘batsman’ symbol to the unheard-of AP Rashtra Samaikya Samiti Party.

Was it a party to be floated by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who secured the symbol given his association with the game?

While what will happen with the party remains to be seen — the YSRC was also registered by low-profile people before it was taken over by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy — the truth at this time is more prosaic.

The party belongs to one S. Padmayya, 60, who settled at Kothapet near Dilsukhnagar here after retiring as deputy tahsildar. He hails from Suryapet, Nalgonda district.

He launched the party in 2011 with his son S. Santosh Kumar as president. Kumar, a junior artist in films, resigned four months ago as he was busy. The office-bearers, hailing from Anantapur, Vijayawada and Vizag, among others, are his neighbours.

Padmayya told this correspondent that he is opposed to state bifurcation. Asked why he launched the party, he said it was to promote quality education. He said that if the state remains united, competition among the youth will increase and they will get good opportunities.

Why the ‘batsman’ symbol??Padmayya said, “Everyone knows about cricket, even those who are not educated. To take the party closer to the youth, I preferred the batsman symbol.”
“We have settled here long back, we decided to launch a political party,” Padmayya explained.

And what about funds??“Those who want to contest from our party have to spend their own money,” he said. He insisted that the Chief Minister had nothing to do with his party.