NETA NATTER | BHATTI MULLS OVER STATE'S MASSIVE DEBT

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka says he maintained the
reputation of being a "debt-free person" all these years but now he has the
portfolios of finance and energy, with both sectors neck deep in debt.  Soon
after he assumed office, Bhatti tabled White Paper in the Assembly to
appraise people on how the previous BRS government pushed both departments
into a debt trap by obtaining huge loans in the last 10 years. While the
White Paper on the state's finances put the overall debt burden of Telangana
state government at over Rs 6.71 lakh crore, the White Paper on energy
sector revealed debt burden of TS power utilities at over Rs 82,000 crore. In
the review meetings with officials of both departments, Bhatti has been
saying that as an individual he has no loans as he was against making debts
but he never thought or dreamt that one day he will become a minister and
handle portfolios which have a staggering debt. He has been telling
officials that his task for the next five years will be to bring down the
debt burden of both these departments by adopting financial discipline,
curbing wasteful expenditure and putting a stop to taking more loans.

YADAV: THE POLITICAL CHAMELEON

There is no escape from past words and deeds these days with social media
turning into an elephantine memory bank. Learning this the hard way is MLC
Vamsi Krishna Yadav in Andhra Pradesh who recently joined the Jana Sena, and
the ruling YSRC social media handles gleefully pointing out his past
comments that now show him in a poor light. Yadav's past comments on Pawan
Kalyan saying the Jana Sena chief is not a real politician, and that the
actor-politician "killed" Jana Sena soldiers by saying "I won't be able to
win the elections alone and can't become CM of the state", are now haunting
Yadav. Also making fresh rounds are Yadav's past words praising YSRC chief
and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy calling Jagan a persistent man, a
quality that saw him becoming the Chief Minister. But now that Jana Sena is
in alliance with the TD and the BJP, Yadav, at least for now, is lying low
after his switch.

FLEXIS CHANGE WITH THE POLITICAL WINDS

For politicians, at least for some of them in the past, the writing can be
found on the walls. But with flexis taking over that role, the picture has
changed somewhat. Recently, the Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation issued a stern warning that those pasting posters and hanging flexis without
permission will be penalised but then its staff went about removing those
put up by the Jana Sena and the Telugu Desam and left the ruling YSRC ones
untouched. When a senior TD leader questioned officials on why they are
being partial in their clean up act, pat came the reply, "This will be the
last time you will be seeing YSRC posters. Wait till April next.''

YSRC'S SPORTS PROGRAMME GETS TROLLED BY OPPOSITION

Taking potshots in ruling party programmes is something opposition parties
apparently revel in. In AP, the recently launched Aadudam Andhra (Let's play
Andhra) programme, was turned around with a counter call of 'Dochukundam
Andhra (Let's loot Andhra). The opposition parties believe that the games
the government wants people to play are all about skimming off funds in the
guise of holding sporting events. And not leaving anything to chance they've
created a team of the ruling YSRC naming Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan
Reddy as the captain and his Cabinet colleagues as team members. The
question now doing the rounds is whether the ruling party will get caught or
hit the ball out of the park putting opposition parties in their place.

ETALA-BANDI BATTLE HEATS UP

When political cuts run deep, they are hard to heal. Take the case of Etala
Rajendar and Bandi Sanjay Kumar of the BJP. Sanjay's group holds Rajendar
responsible for the former's loss of the party state president's post while
the Rajendar group maintains that it was a self-inflicted wound by Sanjay.
Be that as it may, the party, in a bid to put to rest the latest rumours
going around, that one of its two 'BC CM candidates' - meaning either
Rajendar or Sanjay - were all set to join the Congress, hastily announced a
press meet by the duo, but only Rajendar turned up with Sanjay's followers
saying he did not receive the information about the press meet.
Incidentally, all this happened in the backdrop of BJP top gun Amit Shah
being in town and addressing all its senior leaders and district in-charges
at the same venue to take stock of the goings-on in the party, and prep it
for the coming Lok Sabha polls, leaving the party red-faced.