He has emerged the strongest within the State Congress for now. He would have surely spared no effort in fortifying his position within the party during his two-hour self-imposed exile in the forenoon. The Chief Minister suddenly zoomed in a private vehicle leaving his security and personal staff behind into the traffic and returned only after a couple of hours on Thursday in the national capital.
Though he has the habit of meeting his longtime friends Mohammed Azharuddin (Congress MP) and Human Resources Development Minister M M Pallam Raju during his Delhi tours, the question of maintaining utmost secrecy about where he is going raised many an eyebrow.
The Chief Minister apportions some time during his stay in Delhi to build a firewall around him, given the eternal internal bickering within the Congress. APCC chief and Minister Botcha Satyanarayana would try to throw a stone or two if he gets a chance. He actually keeps his eyes and ears wide open to grab an opportunity to squeal on the Chief Minister.
But for the baton of law dancing amid the fingers of the Chief Minister, the APCC boss couldn’t have been under check. While some MPs like G Vivek, and Ponnam Prabhakar keep their vituperative against the Chief Minister on, some ministers like DL Ravindra Reddy have been the proverbial thorns in the flesh.
Kiran tried to be politically correct in his bid to keep the numbers from further dwindling on the side of treasury benches, especially when it came to save the skin of his Cabinet colleagues who were being names as accused in the charge-sheets by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the disproportionate assets case of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. Aside from that, he is also keeping some roughnecks like Danam Nagender under check by ensuring that cases are booked against them for the embarrassment they caused to him, but at the same time not throwing them out of the Cabinet.
The meeting with Rahul Gandhi in the second half of the day is expected to embolden Kiran Kumar Reddy. Speculation is rife that Botcha Satyanarayana would have to forego his APCC presidency as part of a quid pro quo arrangement which might elevate him to the position of Home Minister. And, former APCC president D Srinivas is likely to replace Botcha.
The Chief Minister is likely to explain to Rahul Gandhi how he organised successfully a scathing attack on YS Jagan in the last one week by pitching in his Cabinet colleagues against the YSR Congress which turned out to be the Congress party’s nemesis.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad, Botcha, party secretary K B Krishna Murthy also participated in the meeting with Rahul Gandhi. The meet is expected to have discussed threadbare pertinent issues like Jagan, migrations into YSR Congress, Telangana, tainted ministers and dissident leaders.
']]}