Telangana Neta's Natter

Danam red-faced after striking a 'pink' note

Old habits are hard to kick. Even for a seasoned politician like Danam Nagender, the MLA from Khairatabad. At a recent event where Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was the chief guest, Danam began his speech saying “our beloved Chief Minister, Shri Kalvakuntla...” before catching himself. Eyebrows rose, there was laughter among the crowd, while the Chief Minister was seen smiling at the awkward gaffe. After all, Danam had won his seat on a BRS ticket before throwing his lot with the Congress, while technically still with the BRS. But being not one to lose a beat, Danam continued, albeit with some awkwardness joking “just miss... jarrunte sachipotunde” (“Just missed... a little more and I would have been dead).”

In most places, a district collector is welcomed with a shawl, or a bouquet. The villagers of Pippiladari gram panchayat, however, appear to have learnt how to share joy, express gratitude and make sure the gesture is remembered for years. After Adilabad collector Rajarshi Shah helped 15 families of the most backward tribal community, including those without land, receive Indiramma houses, the beneficiaries invited him to inaugurate their new homes. They had one special request: The collector should also unveil the new nameplate of their village, renamed ‘Rajarshi Shah Guda’ after him as a token of thanks. Incidentally, Adilabad has seen this before. Dantoli Guda was earlier renamed ‘Divya Guda’ in honour of former collector Divya Devarajan. Welfare work in Adilabad, now appears to come with a possible village-name bonus.

Unplugged. The word can mean different things in different contexts but in the case of the TGSRTC's planned project of providing last mile connectivity with electric autorickshaws, this turned into a literal case of, well, getting unplugged. The plan unravelled as fast as it was thought up of, because autorickshaw unions protested against it and threatened to go on strike saying that the scheme would cut into their livelihoods. It was once again left to transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar to step in with a fire extinguisher to put out the fire that was being lit, by declaring, officially, that there were no plans of any kind for the RTC to introduce its own autorickshaw service.

After 45 years in politics, another dream

Politics can see meteoric rises to positions of power. They can also be a hard grind lasting decades proving the existence of the proverbial slip between the cup and the lip. And after 45 years in political life, a senior politician from Nalgonda district, who holds a constitutional position, but never became a minister, be at the state, or the Centre, irrespective of whether he was in the Congress, the TD, or the BRS, is learnt to have set his eyes firmly on the next Lok Sabha elections, and is said to be weighing his options on which party was likely to come to power the next time. The buzz is that this leader wants to be in the Lok Sabha and give one final push to make his life-long dream of being a minister come true after the next elections.

Contributions from N. Vamsi Srinivas, Md Nizamuddin, Neeraj Kumar, Pillalmarri Srinivas, Sanjay Samuel Paul