Will BJP contest GHMC elections alone?

  BJP President Amit Shah will visit AP and Telangana states on January 8 and 9th. He will reach Hyderabad on 7th evening and meet his party leaders of Telangana on 7th and 8th. Probably, he may finalize the party stand whether to go along with TDP or not for facing GHMC elections. While a section of BJP leaders are favoring alliance with TDP, another group are averse to it.   Those who favor alliance with TDP argue that unless BJP join hands with TDP, it would be very difficult to convince the Andhra people settled in the twin cities to vote for it. They argue the TRS that has the support of MIM, if gets YSR Congress party support also then it may have edge over BJP in GHMC elections. So, they argue that it is wise to go along with TDP in the GHMC elections otherwise BJP’s electoral chances will be blink.   However, the others who are opposing alliance with TDP argue that it is worth taking risk in GHMC elections. BJP should consider this as an opportunity to test its strength in the twin cities. They argue that the TRS, MIM alliance should be treated as an opportunity to corner the ruling TRS government over metro rail project and many other local issues.   So, Amit Shah has to take a final decision on this matter. Probably, he may prefer to go along with TDP in the GHMC elections, as it is too early to snap ties with the TDP. Even if he lets the party contest alone in the elections, it would be just a friendly contest and not any serious fight between the two parties. Amit Shah is expected to visit Vijayawada on January 9th. Probably, some Congress and YSR Congress party leaders may join BJP during his visit to the state.

Is PDP playing mind games in J&K?

  People’s Democratic Party that emerges as a single largest party by winning 28 seats out of 87 in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is short of 16 seats to form the government. The second largest party BJP that bags 23 seats has tried to strike a deal with it, but drops the idea as the conditions laid by PDP is unacceptable to it.   Then, PDP welcomes National Conference led by outgoing CM Omar Abdullah and the Congress party to support her party. PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti met the Governor NN Vohra on Wednesday claiming that her party has total 55 MLAs support.   But, after coming out of the Rajbhavan, she is all praise to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, instead of briefing the media about her plans for government formation.   She said “Vajpayee had started dialogue with Hurriyat. He had started dialogue with Pakistan. We got generous economic package. UPA continued it for some time but later stopped it. Modi government also got the responsibility to carry forward the development activities as he promised to the people during elections campaigning. But, development will be there as long as peace prevails.”   If she really has 55 MLAs support to her party, she need not to praise Vajpayee ruling and Modi’s support for developing the state. So, she might be playing a mind game to woo the BJP to get its support to her party.   The issues that she mentioned in her statement like dialogue with Kashmiri separatists Hurriyat leaders, Economic package, Development, maintaining peace in the valley sounds conditions for having a deal with BJP.   She may be expecting the BJP to resume a dialogue with Hurriyat leaders, withdraw Armed forces from Kashmir Valley and grant special economic package to the state to share power with her party. But, BJP is averse all her conditions.   She knew that sailing with political rivals-the Congress and National Conference for a long time is highly impossible. Though she runs the show, they both may control her sitting in the back seat. Knowing this, she wants to share power with the BJP to form a stable government, but wants BJP to agree to her terms and conditions. Perhaps, that is what she is speaking about now.   But, BJP also can take the support of its old ally National Conference and form government in the state. He asks Deputy CM Post, a central minister post and a Rajya Sabha seat to his party. So, Omar’s conditions are comparatively much better than her conditions and BJP may think about taking his party support than supporting PDP.

New Year Resolutions

  People all over the world are anxiously waiting to step into year 2015. Many of them take many new resolutions on this occasion, while forgetting about their resolutions taken at the beginning of year 2014. Perhaps, we may forget about our fresh resolutions within a month or two and carry on with our routine lives without expecting any much change.   According to a recent survey conducted by research scholars of University of Scranton, only 18 per cent of the people will treat their resolutions very seriously and achieve their goals. According to their survey around 40 per cent of the Americans take new resolutions every year but hardly very few of them remember about their resolutions later.   We may find a lot of stuff on Google about this subject. But, very few people take pains to go through all that stuff to realize what went wrong with their old resolutions and what encourages them to take fresh resolutions again.   If we do some soul searching, try self-motivation, garner our will power in us, one can definitely implement the resolutions, whether they are small or big. But, often people make resolutions just to seek an excuse for their failures in the past or just to impress the friends and relatives. So are their resolutions found untouched at the end of the year. So, we should have some clarity about the purpose of taking resolutions.   If, we have some realistic goals, then it would be easy to uphold our resolutions also. There may be too many constraints in implementing our resolutions, but we shouldn’t let them force us to ignore our resolutions. Instead, we should treat them as challenges that come in our way to distract from our goals. Instead of focusing our attention on the negative things that may pop up, we always should remember that we are in those 18 per cent group of people, who never forget about their resolution and achieve their goals. As long as we let our resolutions tickle in our brains, we can’t be distracted from our goals during the course of time.   After all we all make resolutions just to fill some happiness in our lives. So, we need not to feel sorry for failing to implement our old resolutions, instead we should pat ourselves for thinking in right direction and make another sincere effort to achieve our goals. So, let us take a fresh resolution for year 2015, but with full clarity about its purpose.

Rapid growth in vehicle business in AP state

  People of Andhra and Rayalaseema region were quite disturbed with the bifurcation of the state, because there is no strong income source like Hyderabad city for the residuary AP state. However, their anxieties proved to be meaningless when seen the rapid growth in the vehicle business sector.   The undivided AP state government has earned Rs. 1000 crores of revenue from the 13 districts of the AP region in the last year. It is Rs.1200 crores now for the same period, which means a 20 percent increase in just six months period. Need not to say that this entire amount goes into AP government’s account only as Telangana state was separated from the AP.   Around, 72 vehicle showrooms were opened in the AP state during the last six months period. Out of these, around 25 are four-wheelers and ten are luxurious cars show rooms. These are in addition to the existing 84 show rooms that spread across the 13 districts of the state.   Earlier, many people in Rayalaseema and Krishna, East and West Godavari districts were used to purchase four wheelers from Hyderabad only as there is a wide choice to select. But, they now prefer to buy from the AP state only because they have to cough up 4 percent entry tax, if they buy vehicles at Hyderabad. So, that four wheel market has simply shifted to AP during the course of last six months. Many new car and bike show rooms were opened in and around Guntur and Vijayawada cities, where the farmers become milliners over night with the real estate boom. Even bankers are opening branches in Thullur and surrounding areas to cash in the huge transactions made by the local people.   The sudden growth in the car and bike show rooms and their sales brought an unexpected fortune to the cash strapped AP state government. Probably, the revenue may further grow once the capital city stands up at Thullur.   If the state government could bring the higher educational institutions and industrial corridors to the state as promised in the AP Reorganization Bill-2014, then this vehicle and transport business and the revenue also may grow proportionately. So, people can assume good days are ahead for the AP state.

Who will form government in J & K State?

  The stalemate over Jammu and Kashmir government formation is still continuing as the PDP and BJP that emerges as largest parties have firmly stick to their stands over terms and conditions for extending support to each other. It is learnt that PDP and BJP have difference of opinion over abandoning the special powers accorded to the state with article 370 and withdrawal of the armed forces from the Kashmir valley. Hence, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is trying to form a grand alliance taking support of the Congress and National Conference, which are ready to support her party to form the government. She is going to meet Governor NN Vohra on Wednesday to express her readiness to form the government. PDP need a minimum 44 MLAs support to form the government and it will have total 57 MLAs support, including PDP-28, Congress-12 and National Conference-17 MLAs. So, it may not find any problem to form the government, but how long these three parties can sail together is a big question. National Conference led by the outgoing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wants deputy chief minister and some important portfolios to his party. Though, the Congress party has not spelled its mind until now, it also may demand for the same as its former union minister Gulam Nabi Azad and few others from the state have become jobless after their party defeat in the general elections. Moreover, National Conference and PDP have been rivals since their formation. So, Omar Abdullah may keep twisting PDP’s hands as long as his party supports the PDP government. It would be like sailing in boat that has a hole beneath. PDP can’t expect much help from the NDA government also for the state development. However, BJP may not let this golden opportunity of forming the government in J & K State. So, it also may play its cards before PDP make any further move.

T-Government to spend Rs.1.40 crores on MPs

  Just few days back, the High Court has suggested the Telangana government to think about the needy people instead of gifting woofing amounts to sports persons and investing on entertainment sector. It made this suggestion responding to a petition in connection with farmers’ suicides due to financial problems.   Etela Rajender, the finance minister of Telangana state, who attends in the finance ministers’ meeting held by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday at New Delhi, has appealed him to release funds due to the state government as the situation is not that good. Telangana government appeals the Centre to relax the norms to avail loans from the banks to meet the situation.   But, CM KCR has been liberally announcing huge projects and welfare schemes as if he is unaware about the financial situation of his government. His projects includes Mission Kakateeya, high rise towers around Hussein Sagar Lake, Cleansing of Hussein Sagar lake, world’s tallest building at Indira Park, developing Yadagiri Gutta in par with Tirupati, constructing tallest statue of Lord Hanuman there, building Express ways, Sky Ways across Hyderabad city, extension and realignment of Hyderabad metro rail project, setting up thermal power plants, constructing Cinema City, Sports city, Education City, Textile park at Warangal and hundred other things that needs more than a couple of lacks of crores to completion. In the meantime, Telangana government has to spend thousands of crores to obtain power from other states.   In this prevailing situation, CM KCR has granted an amount of Rs.50, 000 per month to each MP of the state for providing vehicle, security and other facilities. There are total 17 Loksabha MPs and 7 Rajyasabha MPs in the state. So, it will cost the government Rs. 12, 00,000 per month and 1.40 crores per annum.

J&K likely to be placed under Governor ruling?

  Lots of interesting twists are taking place in Jammu and Kashmir State as the verdict leads to a hung Assembly. Actually, if PDP or BJP join hands they have the chance to form the government. The other option is either of them also can form the government taking the support of the National Conference party led by the outgoing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the seven independent elects. But, Omar Abdullah is playing spoil sport in this power game.   Initially he declared that he prefer to sit in the opposition benches rather than supporting any party. But, later he approached BJP offering his party support to form the government. But, he once again changed his mind and then declared an unconditional support to his rival PDP, after hearing that it is ready to strike a deal with BJP. He claims that he wrote a letter to PDP offering his party support. But, PDP has stated that it didn’t receive any letter from him not even a feeler through his representative. Then Omar Abdullah admits that he didn’t write any letter but conveyed his opinion to the PDP through media only. He argues that the PDP is playing mind games to garner his party support to form the government. He seems to be playing a hide and seek game to stop BJP and PDP join hands to form the government.   However, they both are not in a position to strike a deal now, because of the PDP’s conditions. PDP demands: Full five year tenure of CM post to party president Mehbooba Mufti. Gradual withdrawal of Armed Forces from the valley. MLAs elected from Jammu region shouldn’t peep in Kashmir valley affairs. Since, none of these conditions are acceptable to the BJP, it rejects any alliance with PDP. Probably, Omar Abdullah may be quite excited to see this development.   While these three players are struggling to find consensus, Jammu and Kashmir State Governor NN Vohara wrote separate letters to PDP and BJP asking them to meet him at Rajbhavan on January 1st for the consultations. He also asked them to come with the letters of support from the MLAs, including the seven independents. Though, BJP is still holding talks with PDP and NC, it is not in hurry to strike a deal with any of them unless they agree for its terms and conditions.   According to latest reports, the state may be placed under Governor rule until either of the parties garner support from the other parties to form the government.