A court in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday directed police to register a case against state Irrigation Minister Ambati Rambabu for sale of tickets in the name of YSR Sankranti Lucky Draw.

A court in Guntur passed the order on a petition by a leader of Jana Sena Party (JSP). The petitioner moved the court after the police did not take any action on his complaint.

The court asked the police to register a case and launch an investigation.

JSP Guntur district unit President G. Venkateshwara Rao alleged that in the name of YSR Sankranti Lucky draw large number of tickets are being sold to people in Sattenapalle constituency represented by the minister.

The JSP leader, who had lodged a complaint with the police, said though the lottery was banned in the state, tickets were being sold to people in the name of lucky draw. According to him, the minister himself urged people to buy the tickets.

The complainant said the leaders of ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) were making beneficiaries of various government schemes buy the tickets. He also claimed that services of government appointed volunteers were used to sell the tickets.

Minister for Irrigation Ambati Rambabu pooh-poohed the tall claims of Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu of defeating the ruling YSR Congress. While Pawan gave a call to the people, the other day at Chintalapudi of Eluru district, Naidu and his son Lokesh have been predicting the defeat of Jagan in the next election.

Rambabu said that “neither son (Lokesh) nor the foster son (Pawan Kalyan) would be able to defeat Jagan. He further said that people in the state were happy with Jagan Mohan Reddy’s governance and would give him a mandate for one more term.

He spurned Pawan Kalyan’s claim of working in the direction of Narasapuram MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju. He said that Pawan Kalyan always works under the direction of some others as he doesn’t have his own strategy.

The Minister said that Jana Sena has no own agenda and wondered how the party would defeat the YSR Congress, which has Navaratnalu as its agenda. Stating that Pawan Kalyan works under the direction of Chandrababu Naidu, the Minister wondered how the Jana Sena chief is working under the direction of Raghurama Krishnam Raju.

Rambabu asked the son Lokesh and the foster son, Pawan Kalyan to win their own seats in the next elections, keeping aside the dream of defeating Jagan Mohan Reddy and the YSR Congress. “Let the son and the foster son win the seats where they contest. They were defeated in the last election,” the Minister recalled.

Chandrababu Naidu’s current tour in Kuppam triggered much political heat. In a very shrewd way, Naidu is doing road shows and addressing a series of meetings there for the last two days. He has turned the crisis posed by the YCP in the panchayat election into an opportunity to go to the people in his constituency now. Despite threats from the YCP leaders, Naidu was attacking CM Jagan Reddy by calling him a coward and the like.

Amid rising heat, YCP MLA Ambati Rambabu launched a counter-attack and used the Jr NTR name to corner the TDP chief. This time, Ambati has straightaway said that Chandrababu Naidu has adopted use and throw policy towards Jr NTR. He was saying that it was the TDP leaders alone who were asking for the coming of Jr NTR for the campaigning.
Ambati further said that what was defeated in Kuppam was not democracy but Chandrababu Naidu. It was only after the people gave a shock to him, Naidu was now touring every street there.

The YCP MLA also mocked that Naidu’s situation has come to such a level that he had to use the photos of Balakrishna and Jr NTR now. He further asked how Naidu and Lokesh could announce manifesto for civic polls when they did not implement their manifesto when in power.

YCP controversial MLA Ambati Rambabu has launched a biting attack on the TDP on the issue of the Gollalagunta killing in East Godavari district. In his opinion, the Opposition was needlessly politicising the death. Facts were yet to come out and investigation was still going on. The YCP Government was fully confident that the police would make all out efforts to catch the culprits in the murder of sarpanch candidate’s husband Srinivas Reddy.

At the same time, Ambati targetted and asked why State Election Commissioner Ramesh Kumar visited Gollalagunta village even before the police completed their investigation. Has Ramesh Kumar gone there as a pilot to Nara Lokesh? Will Ramesh Kumar visit every village regardless of which party activist would get killed?

Ambati demanded Ramesh Kumar to explain why he was not visiting Nimmada where Atchannaidu has threatened the ruling party leader not to contest the polls. It was clear that the SEC was acting in a biased manner in favour of Chandrababu Naidu and the TDP.
Ambati

Interpreting the Supreme Court verdict on SEC’s postponement of civic body elections by six weeks in Andhra Pradesh, YSRC MLA from Sattenpalli Ambati Rambabu hailed the SC directive as a victory for the Constitution and democracy and a loss of face for the State Election Commission.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, he said the verdict was a slap on the face of SEC as the court had directed the election commission to consult the state government six weeks after. He also said that the court had pulled up the SEC that it had stretched its jurisdiction and questioned how the model code of conduct will continue if the elections were postponed. “It is a slap on SEC. The court had ordered the SEC to lift the code. The SEC was pulled up for trying to politicise the elections,” Ramababu said.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld the state election commission’s decision to postpone the civic body elections in the state. Hearing a petition filed by the Jagan government, the apex court observed that the SEC as a constitutional authority was well within its jurisdiction to defer polls and that its decision was supreme.

However, in a reprieve to the YSRCP government the Supreme Court gave a directive to the SEC to partially relax the model code of conduct as the elections were postponed and further observed that the state government can continue with its existing welfare schemes or projects with a rider that no freebies should be announced during the six weeks period. Further, it had directed the state government cannot announce new welfare schemes or projects during the six week period and consult the SEC to ensure there was no model code of conduct.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the State Election Commission order postponing elections to rural and urban local bodies for six weeks while a private petition was also filed in the High Court on the same issue.

Elections to mandal parishad and zilla parishad territorial constituencies, the second and the third tier of the panchayat raj system, were originally scheduled to be conducted on March 21. Municipalities and municipal corporations were to go to polls on March 23 while gram panchayat elections were originally slated for March 27 and 29.