POLITICS

Why Congress high command is evading Telangana CM Revanth Reddy?
 

There are enough indications that the gap between the Congress high-command and the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is widening. The Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is interacting with Congress leaders but largely avoiding the Chief Minister. TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud had met AICC Chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi during his trip to New Delhi on October 26. He reportedly invited Rahul Gandhi to participate in the State-level consultation on caste census. Accordingly, Rahul Gandhi arrived in Hyderabad for a two-hour visit. On the contrary, the Chief Minister had been to New Delhi quite a few times in the recent past but could not meet the Gandhi family members. During his visit to New Delhi on August 16, the Chief Minister along with Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu had met the AICC Chief. He personally invited Kharge to participate in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statue unveiling ceremony on August 20. However, neither Kharge nor any of the Gandhi family members participated in the programme. Similarly, after launching the crop loan waiver scheme on July 18, the Chief Minister had announced that a public meeting would be conducted in Warangal and Rahul Gandhi would be invited. Accordingly he flew to New Delhi on July 22 but much to the disappointment of the cadre, the public meeting was not organized making things obvious about Rahul Gandhi’s willingness.

Karnataka bypolls: Dynastic politics rules across parties

Three crucial by-elections to the Karnataka state legislature are due in a few weeks. It is really interesting to analyse these Assembly segments. The three seats were being vacated by those from three different parties: the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, and the Janata Dal (Secular). The three seats are also across the state: Channapatna in Old Mysore, Sandur in Central Karnataka, and Shiggaon in Kittur, Karnataka. All three segments have a close relation as in two cases, sons and in one case, wife of the vacating member have been nominated. The seat of Channapatna was vacated by former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and his party JD(S) decided to field his son, Nikhil Gowda, a third-generation leader from the Deve Gowda family. The Shiggaon seat was vacated by the former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on being elected to the Lok Sabha. The BJP has decided to field his son. The third seat, Sandur was vacated by the Congress candidate E Tukaram and party has nominated his wife as the candidate for this by-poll.