NETA\'S NATTER | PALVAI SRAVANTHI SHINES IN MUNUGODE

There are such things called perseverance, grit and tenacity. All hallmarks of politicians who are serious about their job. It is the character that makes a politico walk the long, arduous miles when others seemingly put their feet up, or get busy with irrelevant matters. In Munugode, the Assembly constituency going to the polls, no one knows when the election will finally happen and everyone is waiting for the election notification to be issued. As a result, the enthusiasm of the early campaigns has died down somewhat. Politicos are conserving their ammo, and moolah, before D-day. Keeping this in mind, politicians from all parties were surprised watching Palvai Sravanthi, the Congress candidate from Munugode, in action. The daughter of the late Palvai Govardhan Reddy, who was an almost permanent fixture at Munugode, representing the constituency five times, has plunged headlong into the campaign, going from mandal to mandal, meeting people and marking her presence. While the TRS and the BJP have loosened their purse strings, there is much interest in the work being done by Sravanthi, an advocate. She had been in the No. 2 position in the constituency in 2014 and knows what it is to miss out. Could this time be different?

27 AP MINISTERS FEAR FOR THEIR FUTURE

Politics at the end of the day is a numbers game, depending entirely on who has the most elected members and who can form government. Then there are a few lucky individual numbers that come into play, with the most coveted one being the number 9. One number, 27, which, when added, equals 9, is sending shivers down YSRC legislators’ collective spines in Andhra Pradesh. The reason behind this newfound fear? There are 27 legislators in the list of non-performers who have been warned in no uncertain terms that they face a precarious future in the party when the time comes for the next election. Among the 27 are the likes of ministers Buggana Rajendranath, Pinepe Viswaroop, R.K. Roja, Dadisetti Raja, Karumuri Nageswara Rao and Taneti Vanita. All being blamed for what AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy views as poor performance on various parameters. The number 9, apparently, is not lucky for everyone after all.

YSRC-TD: KARMA WORKS BOTH WAYS

Digging up the past and blaming their current plight on karma is not an unusual pastime for politicians. When it comes to hitting out at opponents, anything can become ammunition and in the case of the ongoing YSRC-TD battles in Andhra Pradesh, the ruling party leaders are leaving no stone unturned to say former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s present problems are all because of karma catching up with him. To this end, they are listing Naidu’s “coup” against N.T. Rama Rao, unrelenting pursuit of cases when he was chief minister against Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, calling Jagan’s wife names, and so on and so forth. In the glee with which the YSRC cadre are heaping insults on Naidu for his current predicament, they appear to have forgotten that the very karma theory they are resorting to put Naidu down could very well catch up with them too.