Has YSR's move backfired

As the battle to land the rivals into trouble intensifies, more parties are entering the ring and identifying newer targtes. The latest target is a Hyderabad-based realtor-turned-hotelier whose fancy photographs we cannot help seeing everyday while on the city roads! Here's is a download on the untold behind-the-scenes developments.

It was supposed to be the master stroke of it all, but like a boomerang it has come home to torment the man who threw it. Raking up the land holding issue of Ramoji Rao is proving costly for politicians of the two main parties, Congress and TDP.

Assigned lands, which is at the centre of the row has become a hot topic of discussion in the political lobbies. Reports say that the Intelligence bosses tipped off YSR that Ramoji’s scribes were ferreting out information from his own backyard. A panicky YSR immediately acknowledged that his family had indeed violated the law of the land by buying not just assigned lands, but has been occupying government land as well. For the record, and to keep his slate clean, he said that he was returning the land back to the Andhra Pradesh government.

YSR’s unilateral move, coming a day before the Ranga Reddy district collector sent out notices to Ramoji Rao and his bete noire the Sanghis, has stumped many a political observer. Was YSR not aware of the fact that RR and team would dig into the CM’s family background and come up with all the dirt? Was he given bad advice to start with? Only time will tell. Predictably, the opposition parties have gone hammer and tongs at YSR, which in turn has led to the Congress opening up another flank at RR’s land holdings.

The problem is two fold for YSR. The district collector of Kadapa has to issue a notice to the man who is technically his indirect boss, asking him to explain why he should not be prosecuted. Knowing the quality of IAS officers that we have, it is unlikely that such a move will ever be contemplated. YSR did explain that some of the land was bought and registered in a family concern’s name by his father. The rest came in bits and pieces. But that is not the only problem.

Sources say that the BJP is now at work, digging out the assets of YSR’s son Jagan in Karnataka. In question is the sources of funding for the Rs 400-crore power project which was incidentally built by L&T, which the Congress had once accused of being hand in glove with Chandrababu Naidu.

Using its ministerial clout in the Kumaraswamy government, the saffron brigade is said to be looking into the role of a disgraced real estate baron turned club owner turned hotelier who has acquired assets worth crores not just in Karnataka but other states as well. The man in question was responsible for the collapse of two urban banks in Andhra Pradesh, and was lying low till YSR came back to power.

After having worked out a one-time settlement with the banks, the man who calls himself as YSR’s brother is said to be fronting for someone. He has been opening clubs all over the country from Chandigarh to Kovalam, at a break neck speed. How did he come to acquire these assets when he had declared himself as broke before the court of law? The BJP top brass is said to have put senior leader and Dy CM, B SYediyurappa to collate all the evidence. Now, that is a concern for the YSR family, which has been trying to distance himself from the publicity crazy man, who stares out to all and sundry from hoardings all over Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

This is not the last word in this battle of the lands. Watch this space. Tomorrow it may be the turn of Ramoji Rao to face the music.
PS: Real estate barons in and around Hyderabad who had bought hundreds of acres of assigned lands and sold them to unsuspecting buyers for crores are running scared. If the law is implemented in letter and spirit, the lands from Timmapur to Vikarabadand from Ibrahimpatnam to Shamirpet will revert back to the government. And with it will go bust the artificial land rates in and around twin cities. That will be blessing for the middle class citizens of the twin cities who wish to own a piece of land.