Kiran Raises Collar, As PM Restores Gas To AP

At a time when union petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy was receiving brickbats from all sides including from his own Congress party leaders, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy achieved a big success on Tuesday when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh restored the supply of its due share of natural gas in KG basin to Andhra Pradesh.

According to a communiqué received by the Chief Minister’s Office from the PMO, the Prime Minister has ordered the petroleum and natural gas ministry to stop supply of 2.5 million standard cubic metres per day of natural gas to Dabhol power plant in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and restore the same to Andhra Pradesh. This would significantly improve the power generation by gas-based power plants in the state and would bring down power crisis in the state. The gas was earlier diverted to Ratnagiri plant at the behest of union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, a few days before he relinquished power ministry.

All said and done, it is a big achievement for Kiran who had a meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday to explain the situation. This would naturally leave Jaipal Reddy red-faced as he miserably failed to protect the interests of the state. He, however, tried to cover up the failure stating that it was he who had advised Kiran to meet the PM to resolve the crisis.

Kiran Stonewalls Jaipal's CM Chances!

By making a hue and cry over the shifting of natural gas allocated to Andhra Pradesh to Maharashtra, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has hit two birds at one shot: blaming it on late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and stonewalling the prospects of union petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy’s chances to succeed him as the Chief Minister.

In fact, the news about diversion of natural gas from Andhra Pradesh quota to fertilizer plant and power plant at Dabhol in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra at the behest of home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was said to have been leaked to the media from the CMO sources. Naturally, the opposition parties raised a lot of noise and the ruling Congress leaders, too, started accusing Jaipal Reddy of ignoring the state’s interests. Despite the clarification from Jaipal Reddy that the decision was taken by the empowered committee in 2008 itself and that he had no role in it, there were no takers for his argument. Naturally, he had to take all the blame.

This is a severe setback to Jaipal Reddy at a time when the Congress high command was reportedly trying to convince him to replace Kiran Kumar Reddy as the CM. Now, there would be definitely criticism as to how a person in the union cabinet who could not protect the interests of the state could be made the chief minister.

Secondly, with Jaipal himself claiming that the decision was taken in 2008 and that the state government was aware of the decision, Kiran and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana got a chance to blame late YSR for keeping silent when the gas being diverted from AP to Maharashtra.

Remove YSR Cut-Outs In Your House : VH

Senior congress leader and firebrand politician V Hanumantha Rao has once again fired on the party leadership in the state. He stresses how the party is losing sheen due to pro-YSR leaders and policies.

'To continue the presence of Congress in state, we should forget YSR immediately. This should be started from Kiran's home first', VH asserts. 'Once we enter Kiran's home, we can see a big cut-out of YSR on the right side. He should first remove that', he said. He feels that CM should educate cadres about the welfare schemes launched by the party rather than telling it straight to people. 'People will forget all the stuff stated by CM in his meetings. Only ground level cadres will remember that and can convey it to people all the time', the Congress veteran feels.

If Congress distances from YSR completely, YSR-Congress will get more advantage than what they are having now. Maybe it is this logic that is stopping Kiran to remove that cut-out.

'When I Asked Ministry, None Saw My Face'

Our Chief Minister is becoming more and more philosophical these days and is trying to connect luck factor to every happening. Currently touring in East Godavari as part of 'Indiramma Baata', he is giving 'upadesams' to cadres in this way.

'When I asked for a minister post, no one has seen my face. Later they made me a speaker and whip, though I didn't ask them. Now they made me a Chief Minister too', asserted Kiran Kumar Reddy. He feels that when we think about posts, they will move more far from us. 'If you work without any expectations, then high-command will always give you posts', explained Kiran to cadres. 'If there is a bit of luck on our side, everything will fall in place', he added. It is an uneasy moment for cadres listening to this as they cannot give a response to these words of Kiran. However, everyone laughed and clapped as the person talking is Chief Minister of state.

Looks like, Kiran got complete confidence now that he will be the CM of this state till 2014 and started talking sharply about everything, says an observer.