Chiru's vain bid to keep his flock together

HYDERABAD: Union tourism minister K Chiranjeevi, who is understood to be positioning himself for the post of chief minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation, hoping that Kapu-BC-Dalit combination would help him sit on the top post, has started efforts to keep his flock together.

With some of his close aides, who had won the 2009 polls on the erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) nomination and later became the members of the Congress after PRP's merger with it, leaning towards other parties in search of greener pastures, the actor-turned-politician on Friday swung into action and closeted with some of them at his residence here and tried to persuade them not to leave the Congress in the 'hour of crisis'.

Apart from ministers Ganta Srinivasa Rao and C Ramachandraiah, Congress legislators who won on PRP ticket, Thota Trimurthulu, M Sridhar Krishna Reddy, K Kannababu, Vellampalli Srinivas, Vanga Geetha, Yelamanchili Ravi, Pantham Gandhi Mohan, Avanthi Srinivas and C Venkatramaiah took part in the luncheon meeting, organised by their onetime boss Chiranjeevi.

According to sources, during the meeting Chiranjeevi expressed displeasure that those MLAs, who belong to his social class, Kapus, are now trying to abandon the Congress ship at the crucial juncture, thus earning him a bad name at the Congress high command.

Stating that it was not appropriate for the MLAs, who had won the 2009 polls on the PRP ticket to ditch him now, as he has already promised the AICC leadership that he would be with the party despite its decision to bifurcate AP, he reportedly asked them not to take a hasty decision on deserting the Congress.

He also reportedly asked them to actively take part in the debate on the T-Bill in the Assembly and express their views. 'I have made all attempts to persuade the AICC high command to do justice to Seemandhra while bifurcating the state.

Despite all my attempts, our party leadership has taken a policy decision to divide the state. It is our duty to stay with the party in the difficult hour,' Chiranjeevi is understood to have told his peers when they told him that the Centre's T-decision had destroyed their future in Seemandhra.

It may be mentioned that minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, who was once considered as the close pal of Chiranjeevi, has almost openly acknowledged that he might not continue in the Congress in the coming days.

The presence of TDP boss N Chandrababu Naidu at the marriage of Ganta's daughter, held recently, led to the speculation that the minister might join his parent party, TDP.

Apart from M Sridhar Krishna Reddy, other MLAs such as Thota Trimurthulu, Vanga Geeta and Kothapalli Subbrayudu are also reportedly made up their mind to rejoin the TDP.

Emerging from the meeting, Vanga Geeta said, 'The contents of the T-Bill are detrimental to the interests of Seemandhra. Hence, we asked Chiranjeevi to try to persuade our Delhi bosses to do justice to our region postbifurcation.'