Even as the controversy over using the pictures of NTR and his grandson Junior NTR on the flexi boards of YSR Congress party leaders in Krishna and Guntur districts is still raging, the party leaders dragged the controversy to the state capital of Hyderabad. On Thursday, huge hoardings of YSR Congress party appeared at Balapur on the city outskirts, in which huge pictures of NTR and Junior NTR were put up along with that of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.

Interestingly, the hoardings also had the pictures of popular actors Mahesh Babu and Prabhas, apparently to project that the flexi board was not meant for just running down th
e TDP, but only to show their affection towards their favourite stars. However, the TDP leaders raised a lot of hue and cry over the posters and pulled down the hoarding, saying it is not proper to have the pictures of political leaders and actors on the hoardings meant for Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.

According to party sources, Kiran will campaign in border areas of Karnataka-Andhra and try to attract voters by addressing a few public meetings and road shows in the first week of May. But one wonders whether Kiran would be able to impress the Karnataka voters, because of his language problem. Even now, Kiran is not able to impress the people of Andhra Pradesh with his speech, because he fumbles in every sentence while speaking in Telugu. Of course, he has improved his oratory skills in the last couple of years.

But in Karnataka, it is a different ball game. He cannot speak Kannada and is not fluent in Telugu. And if he speaks in English, it will not go down well into the people. He is also not comfortable speaking Hindu, though he claims he was born and brought up in Hyderabad. Moroever, Kiran is not a popular figure in Karnataka as he does not have the glamour or image in the public. So, it is doubtful whether he would be of any help to the party in the Karnataka elections.

Taking a cue from the YSR Congress party leaders who have been brazenly using the pictures of NTR and his grandson Junior NTR in the flexi boards and hoardings all over the state, the Congress party leaders, too, have started using NTR pictures on their posters and hoardings. On Tuesday, the Congress leaders put up huge hoardings in Anantapur for a programme attended by minister for school education Sake Sailajanath. Similar hoardings were witnessed in Visakhapatnam in the past.

The Congress leaders might have got emboldened by the statements of NTR’s daughter and union minister Daggubati Purandeshwari and her brother Nandamuri Harikrishna that NTR was a national leader like Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar and anybody could use his photographs anywhere. But what surprised some senior Congress leaders that why the party should use NTR’s pictures, when there is already megastar K Chiranjeevi in the party. It sends a message to the people and the party workers that the Congress does not have faith on  the image of Chiranjeevi and therefore has to borrow NTR from the TDP to attract crowds.

Naturally, India Today group was treated as a big enemy by Jagan and his camp. The Sakshi channel carried several negative reports against India Today and when its chairman Arun Poorie came to Hyderabad, Sakshi carried a virtual attack him.

Now, the situation has changed. For the last one year, India Today has become a hot favourite for Jagan camp, as it has been highlighting his growing popularity and its surveys showed that YSR Congress party would get 21-25 MP seats. It carried special stories on Vijayamma and Sharmila’s padayatra. In the latest issue, the magazine named Jagan as No. 1 among the most influential and popular persons from Andhra Pradesh.

Now, Sakshi has been carrying reports in praise of India Today’s “impartial coverage” reflecting the people’s opinion. Well , that is politics!

On Monday, Mahesh Babu’s photographs appeared along with that of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on the flexi boards and hoardings put up by YSR Congress party leaders in Khammam district. Several large size cut-outs and hoardings were put up all over Khammam district on the occasion of arrival of Jagan’s sister Sharmila, whose “Maro Praja Prasthanam” padayatra would be entering into Khammam district later in the evening.

The flexi boards raised many eyebrows, as Mahesh Babu had never been associated with politics. At least Junior NTR campaigned for the TDP in the last elections and so, his pictures on YSR Congress posters kicked up a storm in that party.  But one wonders what the intention of the YSR Congress leaders could be in using Mahesh Babu’s picture. May be, the YSR Congress party leaders want to convey the message to the young voters that Mahesh Babu would soon be joining the Jagan party!

As such, there have been hardly any instances where both showed any friendship gestures. The key reason for that have been the political differences. Balayya is the core of the Telugu Desam Party while Nag has been a staunch supporter of Congress. He was also the brand ambassador for the Congress government at one point.

Later, after the death of YSR, Nag started showing support to Jagan. Sources say he used to visit Chanchalguda Jail and meet his friend/business partner Nimmagadda Prasad and also met Jagan in the process. All this is reportedly being treated by Balayya as rivalry. But here is the turning point in the fight.

Recently few media channels highlighted about Nag’s land grabbing cases and even a PIL was filed against it. Within no time TDP leaders like Revanth Reddy also targeted Nag in front of the media. It is heard that Nag called up Balayya in this regard and suggested the Nandamuri star to advise his MLAs and leaders not to speak about it. However, it is heard that Balayya took it easy.

The other gossip making rounds is, recently Nag personally went to Balayya’s residence to speak about the issue but despite being at home, Balayya has reportedly made himself unavailable. This has reportedly taken their fight to the peak. Of course, Balayya cannot advise his MLAs or leaders what to do because it would bring differences between them. All said and done, the dirty field of politics seems to have built yet another enmity between two big stars of our industry.

Aravind is learnt to have personally called up media persons on the Tollywood beat and requested them not to write negative stories about the performance of Sirish in Gauravam, though it was too amateurish.

“It is his first film and he needs all your blessings. You can review the film in whatever manner you can, but please spare my son. He has a bright career ahead,” he is learnt to have requested.

So, one would notice that though there were quite a few reviews on the film, some good or bad, but the critics somehow did not make any negative comment on the performance of Sirish. Well, if you are influential, you can have anything at your disposal!

Reacting to the reports that some of the Telangana Congress MPs are planning to quit the party, Lagadapati said the sooner they quit, the better would be for the party.

“There is no loss to the Congress, if the Telangana MPs resign from the party. Nobody can blackmail the party. The Congress party would remain intact till 2014 elections,” he said.

However, the Telangana Congress MPs want to wait till the completion of the budget session of Parliament.

“We will raise the Telangana issue on the floor of the House. If there is any response from the Centre, it will be good. If we are suspended or sacked, we will intensify our agitation and take our decision on quitting the party,” Congress MP Manda Jagannatham said.

The Telangana MPs registered protest demonstration at the main entrance of parliament for some time, before displaying placards and raising slogans on the well of the Lok Sabha. However, their number has come down compared to last session with only Manda Jagannatham, Ponnam Prabhakar and T Rajaiah were present, while others like Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, G Vivek and Gutta Sukhender Reddy did not turn up. Surprisingly, Ramesh Rathod joined their protest.

Unfortunately, the Telangana Congress MPs’ voice was not heard in the House as there were loud protests from other parties on Delhi rape incident. The MPs displayed placards stating that the Centre should take a decision on Telangana at the earliest.

“We have all the evidences to prove that KCR had received kickbacks from Gali Janardhan Reddy. Not only that, he had received bribes from Polavaram project contractors and also Rakshana Steels which is allegedly linked to Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s son-in-law Brother Anil Kumar. That was why he had not taken up any agitation when the YSR government was favouring these projects. We will disclose all the evidences, if KCR accepts our challenge for a thorough inquiry,” Errabelli said.

He said he would quit politics, if KCR proved that he had taken up agitation against Bayyaram mines.

“Now, he is shedding crocodile tears on Bayyaram mines only to make some more money through blackmailing. If he is sincere about Bayyaram mines, he should  stage a dharna in front of the chief minister’s residence,” the TDP leader challenged.