HYDERABAD: Praja Rajyam has regretted that ‘injustice’ had been done to the State in terms of the poor representation in the Union Council of Ministers and charged Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy with lack of will to pursue the State’s agenda. At a press conference here on Thursday, senior leader T. Sitaram said that although 33 Congress MPs were elected from the State, Dr. Reddy managed to secure only one Cabinet rank Minister and four Ministers of State.

In comparison, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, that sent lesser number of Congress and Trinamool Congress MPs, had bagged many more berths while the NCP could get three. He regretted that the North-South divide still continued despite better performance. Of the 78-strong Union Cabinet, only 26 were from the South, he said.

TIRUPATI: Praja Rajyam president and Tirupati MLA K. Chiranjeevi on Thursday left no stone unturned to lift the sagging morale of his party cadres in the district.

On his maiden visit to the constituency that voted him, Mr. Chiranjeevi conducted a district-level review meeting and thanked the people of the district who had voted in favour of the party candidates. He also told the party workers in no uncertain terms the need to get in touch with the grassroots.

After offering prayers at Tirumala, Mr. Chiranjeevi drove down to the suburban Padmavathipuram where he inaugurated the party’s local office in the building adjacent to the residence of party leader Chadalawada Krishnamurthy. He was mobbed by party enthusiasts and youth wherever he went. In a closed-door meeting with district convener Jangalapalli A.Srinivasulu, former legislators A. Mohan and Ch. Krishnamurthy, office-bearers S. Muni Subramanyam and Kathula Sudhakar among others, Mr. Chiranjeevi was learnt to have made some plain-speaking on the reasons for the party’s defeat in the State and the factors that led to its poor show in the district as well.

The meet discussed at length the gaping gaps in the party’s administrative machinery and its failure to appeal to the masses, in spite of all the initial hype on the party and the halo around the leader. Mr. Chiranjeevi was learnt to have told the workers not to get dejected as the party had made significant strides in reaching out to the weaker sections, as could be seen from the voting pattern. He held separate meetings with leaders of the 14 constituencies to get first-hand information on the lacunae in the setup and the reasons for the dent in the expected vote share.

BIGGEST POLLITICAL PARTY MEETING EVER & FOR EVER AT TIRUPATI LORD VENKATESWARA

Praja Rajyam president K. Chiranjeevi, having come to grips with the party’s poor electoral performance, has launched a programme to revamp its set-up.

He has formed two committees – for reception and programmes, and improve access for the benefit of those from districts who want to meet him. According to a daily schedule finalised, Mr. Chiranjeevi will now be available at his residence between 7 and 9 a.m. and at the party office on Road No. 46 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and again between 4 and 9 p.m.

He will receive visitors for an hour both in the morning and evening daily.

This apart, the reception committee will have a representative from districts available at the party office to identify visitors and facilitate their meeting with the party president.

The representative will prioritise the visitors based on their work. It is learnt that the party has completed an exercise and is in possession of a list with names of those who worked in districts.

A day’s training and orientation programme has been chalked out for new legislators on May 31, On the same day, the PR chief will name the legislature party’s deputy leaders, secretaries and whip.

Even as Praja Rajyam Party was conducting a series of meetings to introspect into the reasons for the party’s debacle in the recent elections, one person who was conspicuous by his absence was Pavan Kalyan, president of Yuva Rajyam, the youth wing of the PRP.

Pavan Kalyan’s absence has raised many an eye brow, as he was an important element of the the party’s campaign in the elections. “He has influenced selection of several candidates, some directly and others indirectly. He was the one who played a major role in the party’s campaign strategy. So, he should have been part of the team introspecting into the party’s defeat in the elections. He cannot simply run away like that,” a party leader said.

Pavan is said to have stopped coming to the party office after the election results. Leaders in his coterie are also making occasional appearance. He is now concentrating on his next film venture, sources say.

After the Political affairs committee meet, Chiru spoke to media today evening and explained the reason for the poor performance of his party.

1.The symbol (Rail Engine) was not clearly visible, so we are going for new symbol after consulting election commission.

2.We were little bit delayed while allotting the tickets, we could have announced the list little earlier.

3.As we were more particular about social justice, it was some disadvantage to us,instead of going for Gelupu Gurralu, we…..

4. We were expecting 40% vote share in the state, but Manmohan Singh effect is very much there on the state.

5.Still the party has done well in the elections by procuring more than 70 lakhs votes.

Megastar Chiranjeevi seems to have a very filmy approach for everything he does. That is something he did even for his political career and while it has worked for him, it seems to have fired badly for his party members having looked at the recent election results.

Meanwhile, Chiru is all set to enter the assembly and it seems that he is quite excited over his new role as an MLA. In order to equip himself with the nuances of this new role, Chiru is said to be looking at going for tuitions for the assembly classes so that he makes his presence felt.

The assembly sessions are said to be beginning during the first week of June and Chiru is rather keen to observe the proceedings there and understand how resolutions are made and passed. In a way, this will be a debut for the megastar so let us see how he performs in this one.

T. Seshnarayan, Chairman, Media Cell of the Praja Rajyam on Friday quit his position and primary membership of the party.

It is understood that continued humiliation and lack of trust in him by senior members of the party, compounded by the party’s electoral debacle led to this step. He sent in his letter of resignation to P. Vinay, general secretary, asking it to be forwarded to party president Chiranjeevi. He said he was forced to quit because he had lost hope that the PR would ever function like a political party.

He joined the Praja Rajyam inspired by the USP of change and social justice.

Saroja - mother of Prathyusha came before media spitting fire against PRP and Chiranjeevi. She reiterated that PRP did sell tickets and they used her daughter’s photo to get political mileage. After not getting much help from TDP in regards to justice for her daughter’s wrongful death, she turned towards new party PRP and believed that PRP might help her since Chiranjeevi is from movie industry. Her world turned upside down when Devender Goud, whose son is one of the prime suspects in the case, joined PRP and was given prominent position and decisive power in Telangana related matters. Ticked off, she quit PRP and stayed quiet for a while but now that PRP has lost elections, she threw her share of logs in the fire. She is with a hope that only God would do the justice, these politicians are all selfish.

HYDERABAD: The blame game for the Praja Rajyam’s poll debacle continued on the second day with several seniors blaming general secretary Allu Aravind and T. Devender Goud at the first-ever meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee that extended on to Friday.

While it was the turn of Mr. Aravind to be blamed on Thursday, Mr. Goud was reportedly cornered on Friday, for the poor performance in Telangana region where the party could win only two seats.
Collective responsibility

At the end of the second day’s meeting that lasted nearly about seven hours, it was learnt that the blame game came to an end, with the PAC resolving to take collective responsibility for the poor show. For the first time, the PAC is understood to have come to the conclusion that a single person or persons or situation did not lead to the electoral debacle.

The reasons identified for the party’s abysmal performance included the absolute lack of infrastructure at the lower level, delay in announcing candidates and the lack of time available for the campaign and taking the message of change and social justice to the people. On Saturday, the PAC will meet again to discuss plans to take the party forward and chalk out future programmes, according to PAC member and official spokesperson KSR Murthy.

By a resolution, the meeting decided to revamp the entire party infrastructure. All the ad-hoc committees are to be disbanded soon and fresh committees formed. Interestingly, the preoccupation of the party towards pressing affairs like internal strengthening can be gauged from the fact that three days after Mr. Chiranjeevi was unanimously elected Praja Rajyam Legislature Party leader, the names of Deputy Leaders, Whip and Secretary were yet to be finalised.

Cracks are developing in the TRS monolith after the debacle it has suffered in the recent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Even as a new outfit – Telangana Vimochana Samiti (TVS) – spearheaded by TRS MLC from Warangal K Dileep Kumar is taking birth as an alternative force, newly-elected Medak MP and TRS secretary general Vijayashanthi is reportedly contemplating bidding goodbye to the party. According to sources, Vijayashanthi is planning to quit the party since she believes there is no future for the TRS and it is time she looked for greener pastures. There is, however, no official confirmation about her quitting.

Meanwhile, Dileep Kumar is going ahead with his new outfit. He reportedly decided to have his own organisation after a heated exchange with TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao over the decisions taken by the latter in the run up to the polls that brought disastrous results for the party. Though Kumar claims the TVS is an apolitical organisation, its genesis and contours suggest it might emerge as an alternative to the TRS.

Speaking in this regard, Kumar says a political initiative for securing statehood to Telangana has to be backed by a mass movement and the TVS fits the bill in this respect.

That the TVS has seriously got down to the business is evident from the fact that former TRS MP Ravindra Nayak has already declared his support for the outfit apart from some leaders from other parties and intellectuals of the region. The TVS leaders are also in touch with TRS thinktank Prof Jayashankar, Kodandaram and Gadar. Kumar is planning to have a meeting with likeminded persons here tomorrow.

Meanwhile, raising his voice against the `unilateral’ decisions of TRS chief Chandrasekhara Rao, especially in allotment of tickets, that allegedly led to the poor performance of the party in the polls, Ravindra Naik said, “If the TRS chief does not change his attitude, the party will fold up very soon.” “Today, the TRS is KCR’s family party,” he further said indicating a growing resentment in the party over the manner in which the party chief is functioning.