Power, Telangana, CM land issue dominate AP politics

Hyderabad, Dec 31: The power crisis, surrender of lands by AndhraPradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajsekhar Reddy and his family and theTelangana issue dominated the political scene during 2006 as the rulingCongress tasted first defeat in the Karimnagar bypoll since it wrestedpower from the TDP in the last assembly elections.

The year saw the Telangana issue coming back to centrestage as TRSsupremo and Former Union Labour Minister K Chandrasekara Rao, acceptinga challenge thrown by the Congress, resigned his Karimnagar Lok Sabhaseat only to retain it with a whooping margin of over two lakh votes.

However, the Congress had a consolation with its nominee BotsaJhansi, wife of Marketing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, wresting theVizianagaram Lok Sabha seat from the TDP in a close contest raising thestrength of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

Feeling the pinch, Telangana Regional Congress CoordinationCommittee, which was dormant after the Congress came back to power,once again became active and started articulating the separateTelangana state.

The Congress legislators from the region submitted a memorandum tothe Chief Minister to press the demand, realising that developmentalefforts of the party was no substitute for Telangana sentiment.

There was some churning in the TDP camp, with some of its leadersfrom the region meeting in the temple town of Yadagiri Gutta to takestock of the situation arising out of the bypoll result and chalk outfuture strategy to shore up the party's prospects in the region in thefuture.

However, the TDP denied any political significance to the meetingsaying the leaders had gone only ''to seek the God's blessing.'' TheBJP, which had put the Telangana statehood issue into cold storage dueto compulsions of coalition politics as its crucial ally, the TDP, wasopposed to division of the state, remained clueless in winning back itsfollowing in the region.

On the other hand, the Left parties, which stoutly opposedbifurcation of the state, harped on a special package for thedevelopment of the backward region.

The differences between the Congress leaders on the Telanganaissue also came to the fore when Congress leaders from Coastal Andhra,including Lok Sabha Member L Raja Gopal, locked horns with hiscolleagues in Parliament from the Telangana region, Sarve Satyanarayanaand Madhu Yashki Goud.

Taking serious view of the developments, the Congress High Commanddispatched AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh to put an end to thecontroversy.

Mr Singh asked all party members not to openly air their views onTelangana, as the party chief and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi wasseized of it.

The surrender of 310 acres 'illegal' land holdings by the ChiefMinister and his family kicked up a political storm, with the TRSmaking a common cause with the TDP and CPI(M) for ouster of Dr Reddy.

Unfazed with the opposition onslaught, the government constituteda committee to unearth all illegal land holdings by influential people,including two media barons, and give them back to the poor.

The year saw the government taking on a media baron, perceived tobe close to the opposition TDP, for alleged violation of the ReserveBank of India rules by its financial arm, even as major oppositionparties came down heavily on the government for what they called'political witch-hunting' for exposing the omissions and commissions ofthe government.

The ruling Congress was hauled over the coals during the year foralleged irregularities in the massive Irrigation initiative as also onissues relating to realignment of the prestigious Outer Ring Road (ORR)project and land acquisition for setting up Special Economic Zones(SEZs).

The ruling party, which had allied with ideologically divergentparties, the TRS on the one hand and the Left Parties on the other,lost one ally after the other starting with CPI(M) which had joinedhands with the TDP in the elections to the Panchayatraj Bodies.

While putting the blame on the previous TDP government for thepower crisis, the government looked at the Centre for power andincrease gas supply by the Oil and Natural Corporation to the State,which had largely enabled the Congress party muster the requisitestrength in Parliament to form the coalition government.

Congress, which won the previous elections on the power crisisduring the erstwhile TDP government, is engaged in a damage mitigationexercise by getting power from West Bengal and the Central Grid andnegotiating with Orissa and other states to augment additional power tofulfill its poll commitment to the peasants.

The government which was storing water in the Srisailam andNagarjuna Sagars for the Khariff season urgently released water forhydel generation. It also gave instructions to the Genco authorities toundertake repairs of the Thermal stations which were not producing totheir capacity due to technical snags.

UNI