Talking to reporters after taking part in Naidu’s padayatra in Nalgonda district, JD (U)’s Core Committee president Abdul Waheed and State President P Purshottam Reddy said that Naidu has predicted major changes in the political scenario of Andhra Pradesh. They said that the TDP chief was confident of his returning to power in the State while he also predicted the formation of a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre.

Naidu has asked the JD (U) leaders to work at the grassroots level to create awareness among the people against the failures of the State Government.

About 20 MLAs from the region met at the Congress Legislature Party on Monday to discuss the strategy to counter the efforts being made by the Seemandhra leaders to stall Telangana. It was decided in the meeting to visit New Delhi along with ministers and MPs from the region to seek High Command’s nod for a favourable decision on the statehood issue.

Besides Government Whips Arrepally Mohan and Anil Kumar, MLAs including A Pratap Reddy, K Lakshma Reddy, Bhikshammiah Goud, Kanta Rao, Praveen Reddy, E Satti and Babu Naik attended the meeting.

Talking to reporters later, Mohan said that the Telangana would be a reality by this month end. However, to ensure that the Centre does not gets influenced by the Seemandhra leaders, the Telangana legislators would submit a representation to Central leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vyalar Ravi and Ahmed Patel. He asked the Seemandhra leaders not to issue provocative statements in order to create law and order problems.

MLA Bhikshamiah Goud accused Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal of using unparliamentary words against the Telangana leaders. He said if the Telangana people decide, then they would not allow Seemandhra leaders to stay in Hyderabad even for a day.

Lakshma Reddy clarified that the division of State was not division of Telugu people. Therefore, he said that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh should be taken on a positive note. He said that the Telangana leaders would maintain restrain till January 28.

This could be a signal, to the people of Krishna district as Hari Krishna who was not very actively seen with Naidu coming to meet him personally.

His son Jr NTR and his close friend Kodali Nani kept away from TDP with the latter joining YSRCP and Harikrishna’s presence is to show that all is well in the family. Jr NTR is married to Naidu’s niece Paranathi.

Harikrishna told reporters that he had come to meet Naidu on the eve of his entry to Krishna district from where the founder leader of TDP hails.

The other bondage is that of all the NTR children Harikrishna was the only one who spent his childhood at NTR’s village Nimmakuru.

Mothukupali Narsimlu, the TDP leader, who had been silent for some time, suddenly made an appearance at the Nalgonda show and said Lagadapati Rajagopal has no right to stop Naidu’s paayatra.

Talking to reporters after holding a meeting with the Muslim religious leaders at Old Commissioner Office at Purani Haveli here on Saturday, City Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma said that elaborate security arrangements would be made for the Milaad-un-Nabi celebrations in the city. He said the religious leaders have assured that the celebrations would be held in a peaceful and organised manner.

With January 25 falling on a Friday, the Milaad-un-Nabi procession will start at 8 am and will conclude before the Friday prayers. The organisers have assured that the participants will offer Friday prayers at local mosques after returning from the procession, the commissioner said.

Anurag Sharma expressed confidence that the Milaad-un-Nabi celebrations would be held in a peaceful manner.

Moulana Syed Mohammed Qubul Pasha Quadri Shuttari, Moulana Raheemuddin Ansari, Syed Jaffer Pasha, Moulana Mazhar Hussain and other religious participated in the meeting.

“Instead of looking into the performance of oil companies and plugging the loopholes the Centre has been trekking the easy path of passing on the burden to consumers by increasing the prices of gas, power and petroleum products,” party CGC member Dr MV Mysoora Reddy told reporters here on Saturday.

The hike in diesel prices will have a cascading effect and RTC charges will now be increased burdening the common man. The Mamohan Singh–led UPA has been time and again increasing oil prices in the name of under-recoveries without going into the roots of the problem and regulating the oil companies’ functioning nor looking at the subsidy angle, he said.

Lack of clarity and foresight along with inefficiency of the Centre has been causing the hike in petroleum prices, he said and demanded that the UPA government should take long-standing measures to check the frequent price rise besides rolling back the diesel prices.

We condemn the hike in diesel charges and demand that oil companies need to be regulated to get better financial results, he said.

The argument of increasing prices to have international parity does not break any ice as the GDP of developed countries like USA and UK is far higher than that of developing countries like India. “Then why should they seek equality in prices only,” he said.

Brushing aside Vayalar Ravi’s remarks on YSRCP, he said people are ready to support YS Jagan Mohan Reddy while Congress is in dire straits and has a bleak future in 2014. We have the capacity go alone in the polls. We have said that we will not go with BJP and will back only secular parties. We did not specify which secular party we will support.

On Telangana, he said YSRCP has made its point clear and the stand of Congress has been dubious with two persons giving contrasting view points at the All Party Meet.

However, they were unanimous in saying that they will abide by High Command’s decision. The difference between UPA government and Congress should be clearly defined and Congress has to tell its opinion to UPA government, he said.

The students’ wing will march to Raj Bhavan to mount pressure on Centre for Telangana.

The Telangana Political JAC, other parties and groups have also extended their support to the proposed March.

The Committee will review facilities provided by the authorities to the pilgrims and the income and expenditure of Sri Raja Rajeswaraswamy Temple in Vemulawada in Karimnagar district and also at Sri Gyana Saraswati Temple, Basara in Nizamabad district. The Committee will return to Hyderabad on January 23.

Earlier the meeting scheduled to be held on December 15 was postponed by GHMC Mayor Mohammad Majid Hussain and it led to a series of controversies. However, the Mayor has finally agreed to convene the meeting on February 2. Similarly, a special meeting will also be convened on February 6 to pass the corporation’s budget which has already been approved by the Standing Committee.

Since the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has severed its ties with the Congress party, sources say that it might go closer to the Telugu Desam Party in the corporation. With MIM’s help, the TDP with 44 corporators, could make its debut in the Standing Committee. The MIM is reportedly trying hard to ensure election of two TDP corporators as the members of the Standing Committee.