Scoring sympathy points is all well for politicians, especially in the run-up to the elections when most of their tribe can be seen carrying babies, giving a kid a bath, or frying pakodas ensuring a photo-op does not go to waste. There are some who accept little gifts from little ones just to show how those tiny tender hearts beat for a politician whom they probably have no clue about. Recently, video clips have been doing the rounds of ministers Vemula Prashanth Reddy, V. Srinivas Goud, and Errabelli Dayakar Rao accepting sums varying between Rs 200 and Rs 500 from kids who emptied their piggy banks to hand over their hard-saved cash to politicians for their poll expenses. The question doing the rounds ever since is whether politicians in Telangana state really need to dip into the savings of kids. Incidentally, Telangana is the state that earned the dubious distinction of being home to the most expensive elections in the country, thanks to Huzurabad and Munugode bypolls where the BRS and the BJP waged do-or-die battles and are rumoured to have spent over Rs 500 crore each in each constituency. Do Telangana state politicians really need to skim off the savings of kids to fund their poll battles? That is the question that is yet to be answered.
A BATTLE OF COLOURS WITH TD THE WINNER
There was a time when the colour yellow was synonymous with politics in undivided Andhra Pradesh thanks to the TD, which was replaced by the pink of the then TRS and now the BRS. Political shades to colours apart, the recent announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the setting up of a Turmeric Board saw celebrations in Nizamabad district where people celebrated a Holi of sorts, but with turmeric powder resulting in some wags commenting that if only the TD was around, it would have celebrated at least its party colour lacing the air, if nothing else.
CROWD MANAGEMENT A BIG ISSUE FOR PARTIES
They are back. And in quite sizable numbers. The biggest worry for organisers of political rallies and public meetings are the empty chairs and camera management. With all parties holding public meetings it has now become commonplace for the organisers to keep calling on people to come forward and fill the chairs in the front so at least when cameras pan over the “crowd” they would show lots of people. The other day, the BJP had a peculiar problem in Nizamabad when the section set aside for the media had many empty chairs. Since this was right up front from where those on the dais could see, the organisers rallied their troops to come and fill the chairs quickly so when Prime Minister Narendra Modi began speaking, he would see well-filled galleries. Then there is the problem of crowd response as minister K.T. Rama Rao found out the other day at one of his public meetings when he asked a question if women were getting piped water at their homes as the government promised. When met with silence, KTR moved on to other subjects but not before the moment was captured on video.
GROUP’S FIGHT OVER ISSUE OF NAIDU INJUSTICE
It’s a conundrum that BRS leaders in Telangana state are trying to figure out how to deal with. Former chief minister and TD leader N. Chandrababu Naidu and his recent arrest may have largely become an issue for Andhra Pradesh but with sizeable numbers of the TD and Naidu sympathisers in Telangana state including people who originally hail from AP but settled in Telangana state, the coming elections have become a tightrope walk for many BRS leaders including some who cut their political teeth in the TD. While BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao had early on declared that Naidu was an AP issue that had nothing to do with Telangana, with the polls on the horizon and mindful of where their votes come from, some BRS leaders have something to say about Naidu. Earlier, minister T. Harish Rao said Naidu’s arrest at his age was unfortunate, and recently minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav expressed disappointment over the treatment Naidu received during his arrest and stressed that the former chief minister deserved utmost dignity and respect, which, according to Yadav, is currently lacking in Andhra Pradesh’s political atmosphere. This has not gone unnoticed by YSRC’s social media accounts which have started calling Yadav’s comments as nothing more than political opportunism.
LEADERS MIFFED WITH PALTRY TREATMENT FROM CMO
Come election time upheavals in parties are the expected thing, especially if some sitting MLAs do not get their party tickets. While disgruntled leaders are the norm for all political parties, the one that is right now grappling with the issue is the BRS which was the first off the block in announcing its list of candidates. Grabbing headlines so far was T. Rajaiah who was denied the ticket from Station Ghanpur, and Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy from Jangaon, and joining them now is Rekha Naik from Khanapur who quit the party in a huff and for good measure poured some vitriol on the BRS for the treatment she received. Though Rajaiah and Yadagiri Reddy were nominated as chairmen for two corporations, the silence from them in so far as even a thank you note for the offer from the CMO, has left some in the BRS wondering if the attempt to placate them have not yielded the desired results of making these two leaders fall in line.
