The Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) two-day Mahanadu this week, an all-hands-on-deck meeting for its leaders and cadre, was a highly stylised event, planned minutely to the last detail.
With national president and Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu at the helm, the most prominent feature—apart from high-stakes announcements and speeches by young TDP leaders tailored for algorithmic virality—was a timepiece.
A stopwatch timed to 45 minutes was placed in front of Naidu, and two eight-minute timers were placed at both podiums. Across the TDP rank and file, speakers were allotted only eight minutes to speak. A bell sounded at two intervals: one at 7:25 minutes and the other at 8 minutes, at which point the speaker had to end their speech.
Senior TDP leaders at the party event told ThePrint that the speakers were instructed to carry notes to prevent their talks from becoming a sleepy cycle of policy debates or praise-led rhetoric.
As Naidu began his speech, he watched the ticking clock while guiding his team on their tasks for the next three years of his government. With more than seven lakh cadres attending the event, Naidu wanted all the speeches to be on point.
IAS officer Mundhe’s ‘demotion’
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Tukaram Mundhe, known for his clashes with politicians due to his straightforward and no-nonsense working style, was last week transferred for the 25th time in his 21-year career. He is now head of the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
It is said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has backed Mundhe in the past despite his own party men raising issues with the bureaucrat, deliberately assigned him to the FDA to clean up the department.
In his previous posting as secretary of the disability welfare department, he launched a crackdown against those holding bogus disability certificates and even launched a digital platform to make all services of the department available at one place.
He was earlier this year transferred as principal secretary for disaster management, relief and rehabilitation, but the move was stayed even before he could take charge.
Mundhe’s career has been full of such instances. Political heads of the departments he has led have very often been unwilling to work with him.
As FDA chief, he is already in action mode, conducting raids and issuing notices, but state officials who know him say he isn’t happy with the posting, that it is two levels below his current designation, and is as such, a demotion. They say the situation is being rationalised within the government, with the narrative that Fadnavis wanted Mundhe to clean up the FDA.
Ajay Rai in spotlight for wrong reasons
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai has come under the spotlight over his alleged altercation with a senior party functionary inside the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) office in Lucknow.
According to sources, Rai was upset over a message sent by the senior functionary to Congress MP K.L. Sharma, urging him to persuade senior leader Rahul Gandhi to visit BJP leader Aparna Yadav’s residence following the death of her husband Prateek earlier this month.
Sources claim that when Rahul visited Lucknow en route to Rae Bareli, he enquired about the proposed visit. Rai was reportedly unaware, as he had not been informed about the communication and was not part of the discussion. This allegedly led to a confrontation, with Rai expressing displeasure over not being kept in the loop before the message was sent.
Rai has also been in the news after a video purportedly showing him using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi went viral on social media this month. While Rai dismissed the clip as AI-generated, several BJP leaders have demanded action against him.
Rai has unsuccessfully contested against PM Modi in the last three Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi. Leaders in the UP Congress have started saying these are not good signs for Rai before the state polls.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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