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Political colour assumes as Sonu Sood emerges Covid-19 hero

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Political colour assumes as Sonu Sood emerges Covid-19 hero

“Vadala bommali vadala”. When Sonu Sood as ‘Pasupathi’ mouthed the dialogue in the movie ‘Arundhati’ it gave goose bumps. Soon, it had become a rage and a staple dialogue for many people across the two states.

Now, the deadly spectre of corona seems to have taken the Pasupathi role. The world’s most feared villain ‘coronavirus’ is driving a chill in the spine of people killing them by the dozens. Covid-19 is refusing to die down saying
“Ninnu vadala”. The pandemic is the most despised rogue, real evildoer and lethal. It shows no compassion.

Flus, plagues and diseases are familiar villains in human history, but they bring out the best of character in people. While Covid-19 is wreaking havoc with peoples lives, the pandemic brought out the best in Sonu Sood. The hero in him far outweighed the ‘reel villain’ in him.

First, he had offered his Juhu Hotel in Mumbai for the frontline warriors including the doctors, nurses and the para-medical staff to stay there.
“We can collectively win this fight against Covid-19,” were the soothing words of Sonu Sood. After offering his Juhu hotel to healthcare workers, Sonu Sood has taken up another Herculean task – feeding 45,000 people daily in Mumbai.

Sood seems to have a soft corner for people of two Telugu states. The actor, who played several negative shades in Telugu big hits like Julayi, Athadu, Ek Niranjan, Super, Kandireega, Abhinetri not to forget Arundhati, stretched his helping hand in these cruel times when even kind words are difficult to come by.

In a gesture to give back to the Telugu people who have patronised him for decades, Sood had gifted a tractor to a farmer in Chittoor district. After a netizen sent a video of two young girls ploughing the fields with a yoke, Sood came forward to help the farmer’s family by gifting a tractor.

With more than 1 lakh total confirmed cases and a total of 1,148 Covid-19 deaths, Andhra Pradesh has been India’s one of the top-most affected states. In this scenario, Sood has emerged as an unlikely hero for his ongoing efforts to help people in Andhra Pradesh. His efforts have highlighted the incompetence of the Andhra Pradesh government to come to the rescue of people in the state.

Two days after gifting the tractor’s family in Andhra Pradesh, Sood has responded to a video sent to his Twitter handle. The video showed a techie selling vegetables in Hyderabad after she lost her job due the coronavirus outbreak. Responding to the video, Sonu Sood offered a job.
Sonu Sood has earned immense praise for providing help to the farmer’s family, the techie vegetable seller, frontline warriors in Mumbai and stranded migrant workers in Maharashtra.

Hyderabad is India’s major IT hub only after Bengaluru. K T Rama Rao is the IT minister. It is unfortunate that a techie had to sell vegetables on the street in a city that is known to be the citadel of the IT industry and reflects the utter failure of the IT ministry to safeguard the interests of the techies.

While Sood is reaching out to people in both the states, discordant voices are attaching political motives to the actor. The actor, known to be a BJP sympathiser, has drawn criticism from certain political quarters for his gesture. Rattled by the ‘generosity’ of Sood, some political parties sought to draw a BJP link to his help to people in the two Telugu states even as the saffron party is looking to gain a foothold in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The central BJP leadership also appointed new BJP presidents in the two states. Some leaders called Sood as a BJP stooge which is unfortunate. The actor had faced similar assault in Maharashtra from Shiv Sena, once the BJP ally. What are the YSRCP and TRS leaders insecure about?

This reminds one of the famous quote, “Those who can do, those who cannot criticise.”

Kudos to Sonu Sood. Your gesture is quite soothing in these times when human values have hit the nadir. May his tribe grow.

Telugu360 is always open for the best and bright journalists. If you are interested in full-time or freelance, email us at Krishna@telugu360.com.

BJP taking advantage out of YCP, TDP and Pawan rivalries

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BJP taking advantage out of YCP, TDP and Pawan rivalries

From the beginning, the AP regional parties are having serious political differences and divisions along caste and ideological lines. This has become a big disadvantage for them as well as for their state at the national scene. BJP Government at the Centre is appearing least bothered about the problems of AP voters. Despite this, there is no major protest against the CAA and NRC in the state. What more, CM Jagan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu are keeping largely silent while Pawan Kalyan is defending the citizenship related policies of the Modi government.

Amid this political crisis in AP, BJP is making maximum out of this by adopting separate strategies to deal with the 3 regional parties. Modi-Shah are keeping CM Jagan Reddy under their control with their enigmatic policies of non-cooperation and non-interference in AP affairs. At the same time, they are bent on hurting the TDP some way or the other. The immediate chance that BJP took for this was alliance with Pawan Kalyan. Here also, BJP is bent on taking greater advantage by using Pawan Kalyan as their brand ambassador for CAA and NRC campaign. Already, BJP leaders are planning a joint public meeting of Amit Shah and Pawan Kalyan next month on CAA awareness in Telugu states. But so far, there is no hint of BJP joining Pawan mission to support Amaravati farmers agitation.

Telugu360 is always open for the best and bright journalists. If you are interested in full-time or freelance, email us at Krishna@telugu360.com.

J-tax is the buzz word in AP politics now!

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J-tax is the buzz word in AP politics now!

When TDP was in power in Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2019, the main Opposition YSRCP coined the word “K-tax” to indicate that those who want to survive or protect their business interests should have to pay “Kodela tax” to then Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao and his family members in Narasaropeta constituency.

Jagan used to allege that in the name of K-tax, Kodela family used to extort money from businessmen, contractors etc.

Though no one could establish this allegation as true so far, even if it is assumed correct as alleged by Jagan, it was confined to only Narasaroapeta, which is just one of the 175 total Assembly constituencies in AP.

But now J-tax (Jagan tax) coined by TDP to indicate extortion of money by YSRCP leaders has become a buzz word in AP politics.

Because, J-tax has extended to entire state covering all the 151 Assembly constituencies held by YSRCP. Even in the remaining 24 Assembly constituencies which are held by Oppostion TDP (23) and Jana Sena (1), the local YSRCP leaders are alleged to be demanding J-tax.

CM Jagan himself received several complaints against YSRCP leaders extorting money from businessmen in the name of J-tax.

While YSRCP sources claim that Jagan in the party internal meetings is warning party MLAs and other leaders against extorting money, they are simply ignoring saying that they had spent a lot of money to sustain party in their constituencies for seven years from 2012 to 2019 being in Opposition and as a ruling party tjhey have to recover the losses now to sustain the party in the long run.

So, J-tax is proving to be more dangerous than K-tax.

The victims of K-tax might be only in Narasaroapeta, but the victims of J-tax have spread across AP.

Telugu360 is always open for the best and bright journalists. If you are interested in full-time or freelance, email us at Krishna@telugu360.com.

Battle lines drawn in AP as parties gear up for early polls

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Battle lines drawn in AP as parties gear up for early polls

Vijayawada: It looks like the political parties in Andhra Pradesh have drawn battle lines anticipating early polls as sounded by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday with his party leaders. In no time, Chandrababu Naidu had appointed all his ministers as incharges for all the 25 Lok Sabha Constituencies in the State. Besides trying to make his Telugu Desam Party stronger through these appointments, Chandrababu Naidu is also targeting at the Opposition. It was seen in the government sending the police to the Opposition YSR Congress party office and serving a notice to its IT wing to appear for enquiry on their social media posts against the government. This had further ignited the war between the ruling party and the Opposition with Y S Jaganmohan Reddy giving an open call to all the Telugu people across the globe to expose the TDP’s rule.

In the two-edged strategy that Chandrababu Naidu had adopted, he had first handpicked his Cabinet Ministers to be incharges for the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. Except Union Ministers Y S Chowdary, who was made incharge of the Kurnool Lok Sabha constituency and P Ashok Gajapathi Raju for Anakapalli, the Chief Minister had nominated the rest of his Cabinet Ministers for each of the constituencies. His son Lokesh is made incharge of the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency.

Chandrababu Naidu had set the target of the Lok Sabha Constituency incharge Ministers to coordinate the MP and MLAs in their respective area and keep the rank and file intact. The incharge Ministers would now have their word carried, keeping the respective MP aside. While it is to be seen if this incharge structure would help the party to keep the folks together or lead to dissidence and divide, Chandrababu Naidu believes that incharges have to hold responsibility in leading the party to the next elections.

The second edge strategy of weakening the Opposition seems to have failed as the police who went aggressive in arresting a social media activist had to retreat and free the ‘accused’. Jaganmohan Reddy’s aggressive call to his supporters is all set to see a tough battle fought in the social media ahead of the elections.

Telugu360 is always open for the best and bright journalists. If you are interested in full-time or freelance, email us at Krishna@telugu360.com.

Devineni era ends in Vijayawada, a remarkable leader in AP politics

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Devineni era ends in Vijayawada, a remarkable leader in AP politics

Vijayawada: The sudden death of former minister and senior Telugu Desam leader Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru during early hours on Monday had cast a shadow on the State politics, particularly the politics of Vijayawada. A man who had his say in the Vijayawada politics in 1980s was a friend of a few and foe of many. Started his public life as an associate of faction Vangaveeti Radha, both of them as loyalists of the then Communist leader Chalasani Venkata Rathnam, Nehru was active in organising the cycle rickshaw and taxi drivers in the 1980s. Later, he separated from Vangaveeti family and that separation had turned the city into a battle field for one full decade. He lost his two brothers, Gandhi and Murali, in the faction fight with the Vangaveeti family, which also lost its key players, Radha an Ranga in the same period.

Nehru, after separation from Vangaveeti brothers, established United Students Organisation (USO) in Vijayawada and thus made inroads into the colleges in the city capturing the youth. The USO, in just less than one year time, became a big competitor to the Vangaveeti’s United Independents (UI) students wing, in whose formation Nehru and his brothers played crucial role. The city had witnessed the daylight terrifying murders starting from the killing of Vangaveeti Radha, the elder brother of Vangaveeti Ranga, in 1974. The feud took its ugliest turn when the Vangaveeti’s group retaliated Devineni brothers killing Devineni Gandhi in 1979 in a filmy chase. The Devineni family also lost Murali in March 1988 and that followed the death of Vangaveeti Ranga in December 1988.

Nehru swung into active politics in 1982 with the launch of Telugu Desam Party by N T Rama Rao and became MLA in 1983. He was a five-time MLA from Kankipadu Assembly constituency and was a Cabinet Minister for a brief period during N T Rama Rao’s term from 1994 to 1995. He sailed with N T Rama Rao in the 1995 August silent coupe led by N Chandrababu Naidu and stayed with NTR till the later died. He was part of the NTR Telugu Desam Party launched by NTR’s widow Lakshmi Parvathi and had contested to Lok Sabha from Vijayawada in 1996 elections. After his defeat in the elections, he joined the Congress and subsequently became very close to late Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.

Though he had won in the 2004 elections, he could not make it to the Congress cabinet headed by Dr Rajasekhar Reddy. However, he lost in 2009 and again in 2014. He had been a staunch critic of Chandrababu Naidu for all these years. However, the return of Chandrababu Naidu to power in the state in 2014 elections had changed the equations. Besides, the crushing defeat of the Congress had also prompted him to return to the TDP along with his son, Devineni Avinash and other supporters.

Nehru is an accused in the cases of Vangaveeti Ranga, Muthyala Sobhanadri, in which he was later acquitted. A man who commanded the district politics once and has a greater following across the State lost his life without achieving his dream of winning the elections once again and seeing his son Avinash becoming MLA.

Telugu360 is always open for the best and bright journalists. If you are interested in full-time or freelance, email us at Krishna@telugu360.com.

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