Jaipal prefers Miryalguda to Mahbubnagar!

Union Minister for Urban Development S Jaipal Reddy, who prefers to stay in the national capital by maintaining a high profile, has suddenly realised that he is representing a Parliamentary constituency called Miryalguda and that he needs to get elected from there again, if there are mid-term elections.

The feedback he has obtained from his party leaders in Nalgonda, that the people of his constituency are not happy with him, as he hardly attends to their problems. They suggested that it would be better for him to move to his native district Mahbubnagar in the next Lok Sabha elections.

But, Jaipal Reddy knows it would be difficult for him to get elected from Mahbubnagar, because the Telangana sentiment is fast picking up there and the people might not vote for the Congress. Moreover, it would make him antagonise several aspirants in Mahbubnagar, particularly the sitting MP Vithal Rao.

So, he reportedly told his friends that he would contest only from Miryalguda, the safe option. To win back the confidence of his voters, Jaipal Reddy is now coming to the constituency regularly on the weekends, visiting the villages, attending to their problems. He even skipped the Iftar party given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi and hosted his own Iftar party for the local Muslims in Miryalguda. That is election politics!!

Judicial probe into assets of Reddy, Naidu

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Dr YS Rajashekar Reddy is set to make history by announcing a judicial inquiry into his and his family members’ assets and those of TDP president Mr N Chandrababu Naidu and his family. The official announcement would be made this weekend.

On Monday, Mr Naidu had alleged that Dr Reddy “collects” Rs 1 crore every hour. The next day, Dr Reddy said he was willing to face an inquiry and challenged Mr Naidu to face one himself. On Wednesday, Mr Naidu agreed, but TDP spokesmen insisted on an inquiry by a sitting High Court judge.

Dr Reddy continued discussions for the second day today with such close aides as finance minister Mr K Rosaiah and adviser to government Dr KVP Ramachandra Rao, apart from senior law department officials. Dr Reddy is trying to have an inquiry conducted by a sitting High Court Judge. But law officials told Dr Reddy there is a Supreme Court judgment that sitting judges cannot be spared for any inquiry. Andhra Pradesh High Court over the past 15 years has turned down requests to spare a sitting judge because of work pressure. In the last three-and-a-half years of the Congress government, the High Court turned down two such requests.

“Dr Reddy has decided to order an inquiry. The inquiry will cover assets held by both families in 1978, when they entered politics," a senior aide of Dr Reddy told media.

Meanwhile, senior TDP leader T Devender Goud demanded judicial probe by a sitting judge of Supreme Court or High Court into the assets.

Addressing a press conference here, Goud, a former home minister, sought an all-party meeting to fix the terms of reference for the proposed judicial commission.

Shaking hands is insulting for this Desam leader!

Nobody knows why Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu has made former minister K Vijayarama Rao as president of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Telugu Desam unit, but the party activists are highly disappointed with this person.

For, Vijayarama Rao considers himself as a high-profile leader and has never maintained any close relationship with the grassroot party workers. As a result, there is a huge gap between him and the party workers. The other day, a senior leader of the Hyderabad City TD unit, went to meet Vijayarama Rao and had to wait for more than two hours to get the appointment. When Vijayarama Rao came out of his house finally, this leader streched his hand for a shake-hand, but the former did not respond. Apparently felt humiliated, this leader told Vijayarama Rao to learn how to shake hands with the party leaders and workers. "Sir, you are not a police officer now nor are you a minister. You are leading the party in Hyderabad. You should learn shaking hands with the workers, so that they feel intimate to you," he said.

Vijayarama Rao was taken aback and told the leader that he had never shaken hands with anybody, except his superiors in the police department and assured that he would learn this manners.