Jaganmohan vs KCR: Andhra Pradesh CM takes the lead

HYDERABAD: The bonhomie between chief ministers of two neighbouring Telugu states — K Chandrasekhar Rao and YS Jaganmohan Reddy — is all too evident and stark in the public domain ever since the latter took over as CM of Andhra Pradesh. This new-found cordiality, which was missing when N Chandrababu Naidu was CM, may put an end to five years of acrimony and help resolve key issues, including water sharing disputes.
But, this has also spawned a fierce debate on the working styles of both the CMs, TRS and YSRCP’s stand on defections, relations with government employees, new schemes like Ammavodi and proposed new legislation on fee regulation. So much so, experts point out that Jagan has become a ‘headache of sorts’ for KCR as he seems to have stolen a march over his Telangana counterpart in announcing welfare schemes and maintaining good relations with government employees.

Jagan has already scored a few brownie points on the issue of defection of MLAs. “If TDP legislators want to join YSRCP, they should resign first, join the party and get elected on YSRCP ticket. He has urged the assembly speaker to disqualify the turncoat legislators,” a senior YSRCP leader explained.
“The TRS government is adopting the ‘three B’ principle — buy, bully and blackmail. TRS want to emerge stronger by weakening the opposition parties, which does not bode well for democracy,” Dasoju Sravan Kumar, national spokesperson of Congress, said. “YSRCP is not an ally of our party, but Jagan’s decision not to encourage defections is commendable,” Sravan added.
Political analyst K Nageshwar said people’s expectations have soared owing to repeated claims of KCR that Telangana is the richest state in the country. “When Naidu was CM, people used to compare him with KCR. The former AP CM copied KCR’s schemes like Rythu Bandhu and Kalyana Lakshmi and implemented them in his state. However, Jagan took the lead, announced new schemes like Ammavodi and began implementing them. He has become a headache for KCR,” Nageshwar said.
Telangana government employees have already started comparing with their AP counterparts over interim relief (IR), RTC merger with government and scraping of contributory pension scheme (CPS). The AP government recently announced 27% IR, appointed a committee to scrap CPS and look into APSRTC’s merger into state government, which is a long pending demand of RTC workers of both the states. “During elections, TRS had promised to enhance the retirement age to 61 years from 58. But, nothing has changed yet,” rued an office-bearer of a government employees’ association told TOI.
Telangana School Parents’ Association members are also not far behind. They said the Telangana government should take a cue from Jagan’s announcement on fee regulation. “Jagan said he would bring legislation to regulate fee in private schools at the collectors’ meet on Monday, whereas the TRS government has been sitting on Tirupathi Rao committee’s recommendations on fee regulation for the last two years,” K Venkat Sainath, joint secretary of Hyderabad School Parents Association, told TOI.
Interestingly, the AP chief minister is believed to be taking suggestions from KCR on various issues, especially on irrigation sector.