The bail petitions of Jagan Mohan Reddy and Nimmagadda Prasad were rejected by the Supreme Court today. In another upset, Vijaya Sai Reddy, who has been on bail in the case, was asked by the court to go to jail again. He has been given time till June 5 to surrender, in view of his daughter’s marriage.

YSR CP leaders, including Jupudi Prabahakara Rao, have been exuding confidence that Jagan was all set to get bail this time around. Their hopes seemed to have relied on the fact that Supreme Court was critical of the functioning of the CBI, especially over the Centre’s control on the affairs of the premier investigative agency.

It has been almost a year since Jagan has been lodged in Chanchalguda Jail. He would have an opportunity to apply for a fresh bail after 4 months, since the SC asked CBI to complete investigation during this period.

Meanwhile, the YSR Congress Party leaders blamed the CBI for the apex court’s decision, which they said had been concocting stories against Jagan and influencing the court against him.

The moment Chandrababu entered, most of the national leaders went near him. All the stalwarts like Manmohan Singh, L K Advani, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Yadav and several others shook hands with him. They spent most of their time talking to him or posing for pictures along with him.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, who did not pay much attention to the greetings by Purandeswari, Mohan Babu and others, actually called Chandrababu to shake hands and pose for photographs.

The ceremony clearly established that Chandrababu Naidu, despite the bad patch that he has been undergoing for a long time now, still is a politician who is easily the most recognized politician from Andhra Pradesh.

Contrast this with others such as Daggubati Venkateswara Rao and Purandeswari. NTR’s daughter was greeted by some leaders, nobody seems to have recognized the elder son-in-law of late NTR.

The NTR family members including Harikrishna, Balakrishna seems to have realized that Babu, after all, still matters in Delhi.

Jr NTR seemed most uncomfortable in the function, as none of the senior politicians seemed to have bothered to know who he was. No wonder, the actor disappeared from the venue even before the ceremony got wrapped up.

Last but not the least. Though NTR’s statue would be the last to be installed in the precincts of Parliament, the ceremony saw the who’s who of Indian political spectrum gathering at one place to pay tributes to one of the most iconic public personalities that the country has ever produced.

The 9.5 feet bronze statue was installed by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at the Parliament Rajya Sabha Lobby in a convivial atmosphere today at 11.30 am.

See full video at the bottom

Top leaders from all parties were present on the occasion. These include:

Manmohan Singh, Ansari, Meira Kumar, Farooq Abdullah, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Jaipal Reddy, Rajiv Shukla, Jyotiraditya Scindhia, L K Advani, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, Baalu, CPI Raja, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sitaram Yechuri, Gurudas Dasgupta, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Pallam Raju, Killi Kriparani, Ponnam Prabhakar, Manda Jagannadham, Sarvey Satyanarayana, Sharad Yadav, P J Kurien Gulam Nabi Azad, Rekha, Narayana Swamy and Sushma Swaraj

Chandrababu Naidu, Purandeswari, Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, Mohan Babu, Balakrishna, Jr NTR, Harikrishna, Kalyan Ram, Jayaprada, Lakshmi Parvathi, Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, Yalamanchili Sivaji, Modugula Venugopala Reddy, Suresh Shetkar, CM Ramesh, Sujana Chowdary, Nama Nageswara Rao, Lal Jan Basha

Chiranjeevi came late but not seen in the video captured by Parliament videographer. UPA chief Sonia Gandhi was conspicuous by her absence. There were reports earlier that some Congress MPs including Panabaka Lakshmi, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Sai Pratap and Ananta Venktrama Reddy dissuaded Sonia from attending the function, since NTR was the fount of anti-Congressism in Andhra Pradesh.

The large attendance was testimony to the high regard in which national leaders held the memory of the late NTR in his brief political stint. The warring mwembers of NTR clan displayed some – even though forced - camaraderie in the get together that lasted nearly 15 minutes.

Jr NTR was briefly seen at the function, even as Purandeswari was spotted trying to avoid eye-to-eye contact with Chandrababu Naidu.   Lakshmi Parvathi was all through grinning broadly and was seen in a happy mood trying to chat up with some national leaders.

Later, Purandeswari organized a book release function at Andhra Bhavan. “From Frames to Fame” was released by Venkaiah Naidu. NTR family members including Balakrishna – but not Harikrishna and Jr NTR – participated in the function.

According to information, Ram Charan initially himself got down from the car and manhandled the two techies Kalyan and Phanish. Later, on the phone call of Ram Charan, four security personnel of City Security Wing, who are provided to VIPs, reached the scene and roughed them up. One of the techies was badly treated, who was made to stand without  his shoes on the tar road in the scorching sun.

Both the techies went to Banjara Hills Police Station to lodge a complaint. But the orders from the above – not only from Botsa but also reportedly from another Minister C Ramachandraiah – prevented the cops from registering the same. Starting from SI to ACP of the station were forced to discourage the complainants, advising them they should better go without a complaint lest they faced more troubles in future.

Interestingly, the security men who are from the city police, are not supposed to beat up anybody on the instruction of Ram Charan, since they were supposed to be protecting Chiranjeevi. 

Though the Cobrapost sting operation was targeted at nationalized banks and their managers who are willing to convert blackmoney into white, the Andhra Minister’s offer came unexpectedly.

The story, published in Cobrapost today created shockwaves across the country, as how the financial institutions are hand in glove with hawala operators and corrupt politicians in bringing unaccounted money into the system.

“A banker, ready to launder our ill-gotten money, an orthopedic surgeon who is looking for big funds for his real estate project in Tirupati, a minister who stands guarantee for safety of our investment of black money in this project, and finally a hawala operator who would help deliver our cash anytime, anywhere we wish. This is a tale with many twists and turns, involving two capital cities, Delhi and Hyderabad”, says the story.

See more here.

Sailajanath, however, defended himself saying he only tried to put a good word about his friend who was seeking investment. “There is nothing more to this. Don’t use words like hawala for this,” he said.

Lakshmi Parvathi took strong objection at being kept out of the function and blamed Purandeswari for the humiliation. She said as NTR’s wife, she was the legal heir to the late leader. She also blamed Lok Sabha Speaker Miera Kumar for yielding to the tactics of Purandeswari in turning the event as the Minister’s personal show.

Interestingly, Lakshm i Parvathi said that she as NTR’s wife and Chandrababu Naidu, as NTR’s son-in-law, were required to be invited to the statue installation. “Chandrababu might have back-stabbed NTR, but that is a different issue. As a family member, he also should have  been invited,” she said.

Lakshmi Parvathi also lambasted Purandeswari saying that it was she who was responsible for dethroning NTR in 1995. “If she cannot accept his father’s second wife, whom he loved and married, what message would Purandeswari as a union minister give to the country?,” she questioned.

Stating that she would write a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj on the injustice being done to her, Lakshmi Parvathi wondered whether Parliament was Purandeswari’s pocket borough.

“If the function was being held in Purandeswari’s house, I wouldn’t have asked to be invited. NTR  is being honoured by the highest Constitutional body in the country and his wife doesn’t get the invite,” she said.

It is known that Purandeswari, using her persuasive skills, convinced the ruling Congress Party to allow her to sponsor the installation of the statue. Once she got approval, she went ahead and got the statue ready in Guntur district. She also announced the program on May 7, pointing out that invitations will be sent out to all family members.

The making of the statue apparently cost Rs 13 lakh, which is reported to have been paid by Purandeswari.

However, the TDP leaders are upset that Purandeswari was successful in hijacking the entire credit for the installation of the state, though they have been making every effort for the same for the last many years.

Though Naidu is yet to announce his decision officially, his response today that he was advised by doctors to take rest also gave away his intentions.

Meanwhile, some senior  leaders of the party are unhappy with the way the statue came up, as they think it was not up to the mark due to sculptural inadequacies.

Dadi, who quit TDP recently, said he was greatly impressed by the commitment shown by Jagan to bring about a change in the governance if he were to be given a chance. He said Jagan had explained to him his vision of taking the state forward. “I feel if youth were given power, they would bring about a change in the state”, he said.

He also paid rich tributes to YSR, whom he compared to the late NTR in implementing welfare programs to the poor and the needy. YSR was a colleague for nearly 30 years in politics and the late chief minister always had a good word for him even though he was critical of YSR.

He said he was happy after meeting Jagan in jail and announced he had decided to work with Jagan and stand by the YSR family.

Asked about his scathing attacks against Jagan in the past, Dadi replied that he was only articulating the party stand. “I am not an individual but a party spokesperson, as spokesperson it was my duty to express the opinions of the party,” he clarified.

He said though he had been asked by leaders such as Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, YSR and Chiranjeevi to switch to their side in the past, but did not do so. Now, since Chandrababu does not want him in the party, he was forced to leave.

Dadi later met Vijayamma at Lotus Pond and formally joined the YSR Congress Party.

According to reports, except for Siddipet, the constituency of Harish Rao, the impact of bandh in the rest of the district was bare minimum. Life and traffic was routine in Sangareddy, the district headquarters. Shops were open and buses and vehicles plied as usual, even as police ensured no untoward incident occured.

Government Whip and Sangareddy MLA Jagga Reddy, who vowed to foil the bandh call given by TRS, displayed his hold on the place, ensuring that normal life remained unaffected. Simultaneously, TRS activists, who made vain attempts to stop buses, were taken into custody by the police.

Life went on normally in Jaheerabad, Narsapur, Narayanakhed. Even industrial areas such as Jinnaram, Patancheru, Pasamylaram and Bollaram witnessed little disruption to normal life.  Jaggareddy followers took a bike rally in Sangareddy against the bandh call.

TRS rank and file in the district were left red-faced following the failure of the bandh call given by no less than the party chief KCR in his home district. The pink party is unable to swallow this humiliation.

Adding insult to injury, Jagga Reddy said KCR failed in his challenge thrown at CM Kiran, referring to the former’s statement that he would create a quake against the government.

But the resistance from within the district YSR CP is already causing embarrassment to the senior leader, who had sent his resignation letter to Chandrababu yesterday.

The Konathala group is still unable to come to terms with the ensuing admission to Dadi in the party. Konathala Ramakrishna is currently leading the YSR Congress Party in Visakhapatnam district. He is already unhappy that he was not being given due importance in important decisions.

In this backdrop, the invitation to Dadi Veerabhadra Rao, who has been his political foe for decades now, is not to the liking of Konathala, who is planning to contest for Anakapalle MLA seat in the next Assembly elections.

Despite his bitterness, Konathala today said that he would not object to Dadi joining the party, if Jagan thinks YSR CP would be strengthened with the move. He admitted that he had faced problems with Dadi in the past, but he would still respect party’s decision.

Though the party leadership seems to have convinced him to accept Dadi’s joining, local leaders say it would not be easy for both the leaders to sail smoothly in the same boat.

Dadi is apparently looking at contesting as MP from Anakapalle. Speaking to reporters today, Dadi said that he would meet with Jagan in jail tomorrow morning and if he were to be satisfied with Jagan’s promises on a range of issues, then he would announce his decision.

Meanwhile, Kutbullapur independent MLA Kuna Srisailam Goud is all set to join YSR CP. The MLA who is presently associated with the Congress Party is meeting Vijayamma on April 6.