Azhar pads up again, but pitch is getting crowded
Following the sudden demise of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, the race for the Jubilee Hills bypoll ticket is heating up within the Congress. A former BRS MP who switched sides just before the Lok Sabha elections is now eyeing the MLA ticket and has launched an aggressive campaign. But former MP and ex-Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who contested from the seat last time, is not backing down. He has already declared that he alone is in the race and will contest again. However, TPCC chief B Mahesh Kumar Goud struck a neutral note, saying that four names would be sent to the high command, and a final decision would be taken at the top. Meanwhile, the ex-BRS MP is lobbying hard, meeting key party leaders and hoping to send Azharuddin back to the pavilion before the innings even begins.
MLAs rock the boat, who’s steering?
A PIL in court, four Congress MLAs pointing fingers at their own government and quite a few raised eyebrows in the ruling party. MLAs Anirudh Reddy (Jadcherla), Yennam Srinivas Reddy (Mahbubnagar), Murali Naik (Mahbubabad), and Rajesh Reddy (Nagarkurnool) have filed a petition in the High Court over encroached land near Khajaguda lake where a builder is raising eight towers, 47 floors each. It is said that a key minister might be the invisible hand guiding this move to embarrass the chief minister and flag concerns to the high command about his handling of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development portfolio. Some party leaders are wondering aloud: Was the courtroom drama really necessary? Couldn’t this have been settled with a closed-door chat with the CM?
Tapped, but not everyone’s on the line
Word is, even Gandhi Bhavan’s PRO, Kappara Hariprasad —who drafts press notes and sets up media briefings — got a call from the SIT in the phone-tapping probe. But curiously, some of the Congress big guns didn’t find a place in the 618-name longlist of “eavesdropped elite”. Insiders say the SIT is relying on call logs from service providers, who only keep data for 15 days, and certain names are still missing. With the Telangana elections held way back in November 2023, that means they’re trying to solve a jigsaw with half the pieces missing. At a recent chitchat, when someone asked a certain MP, who is believed to be close to the current CM, why he hadn’t been summoned, the parliamentarian just chuckled and said, “Guess ‘Tapping Rao’ didn’t want to hear me crying about my financial woes!”