NETA NATTER | TELUGU DESAM'S MOON LANDING ALL SET?

With Chandrayaan -3’s success, it was just a matter of time before parallels were drawn with the prospects of political leaders. Quickly off the mark on this front were TD activists who began predicting on social media that the Moon mission of the country showed that there was one more Chandrayaan/Chandrodayam in the offing, this time in Andhra Pradesh which will see their chief N. Chandrababu Naidu return as CM in the near future. Just look at the parallels, the TD began saying — Chandrayaan 2 failed in 2019, so did Chandrababu, now Chandrayaan-3 has succeeded, and so will Chandrababu. This may well become the TD’s motto. Clearly, TD leaders and workers can’t stop themselves mooning over their leader.

SC CANDIDATES’ MLA HOPES DASHED

The practise of politics, and picking candidates by a party for the elections, can be a complex task. For the disappointed aspirants who are left out of the race, the blow can be hard. Take Krishank Manne of the BRS, for instance. An aspirant for the Secunderabad Cantonment ticket, the only SC reserved constituency in the city, Krishank, an avid and dedicated follower of K.T. Rama Rao, found his hopes dashed when not named in the BRS candidates list. Any fears that he may have been put out to pasture were placed at rest by none other than KTR, who has been in the USA for the past few days, tweeting that some capable leaders like Krishank could not be accommodated due to political compulsions. This triggered a debate within the BRS circles on why Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had picked Nanditha Lasya, daughter of G. Sayanna, Cantonment MLA who passed away recently. Is Lasya, who won as Kavadiguda corporator, not very deserving and capable to contest the MLA elections? This question did the rounds as Krishank too had never contested any election. KTR, on his part, assured Krishank that he will ensure that leaders like him and others who were denied tickets get their chance in another form to serve the people. Incidentally, Krishank is enjoying a taste of power and position as chairman of the TS Mineral Development Corporation since December 2021.

KCR’s LUCKY NUMBER 6 STILL RULES

Is Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao still sticking to his lucky number six? When the BRS stated that KCR would announce its Assembly candidates, the press meet was to be held at 12.03 pm last Monday — the sum total of the numbers amounting to 6. But the press meet was held between 2.39 and 3.15 pm on that day. The timing was supposed to be auspicious. When he announced a list of 115 candidates, it looked like the ‘6 sentiment’ may have been done away with. Apparently, what most missed out was that KCR was contesting from two seats, so the actual number of candidates added up to 114, these digits adding up to his lucky number 6. And therein lies the secret of KCR’s numerology.

FAMILY POLITICS IS A TRICKY GAME

The other day, Marri Aditya Reddy, son of BJP leader and former minister Marri Sashidhar Reddy, pasted posters to mark the 79th birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Among the photos of Congress top brass like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge and even AICC secretary Mansoor Khan and local leaders like A. Revanth Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Anjan Kumar Yadav, conspicuous by its presence was the picture of his grandfather and former CM Marri Chenna Reddy. With his father being in the BJP, this part of the political legacy was left out of the posters by Aditya, who first tried his political luck with a foray into politics through the Telangana Jana Samithi founded by Prof. Kodandaram, before leaving that outfit and joining the Congress in 2022.

RAKHIS PLAYING PIVOTAL ROLE THIS ELECTIONS

With the Raksha Bandhan festival not too far away, it was just a matter of time before someone picked on the idea of tying rakhis as a political activity. On his recent visit to Rajahmundry, former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu advised women to perform pujas to rakhis for 40 or 45 days, saying that they can get ‘Maha Shakthi’, alluding to the TD welfare scheme of the same name. Whether women have begun doing this is known only to them, but what they have started doing is tying rakhis to YSRC leaders who are making the rounds as part of the ruling party’s Gadapa Gadapaku programme. This is helping both — the politician and the prospective voter. When AP roads and buildings minister Dadisetty Raja received rakhis from women, he “gifted” Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 in return. After all, return gifts for rakhis is a tradition and so there is no stigma of distributing money to voters. It remains to be seen if rakhis will become a fixture before the elections come around.