Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy completes three tumultuous years on Monday amidst non-stop dissidence by Telangana Congress leaders and, lately, Seemandhra leaders gradually distancing themselves from him.
He started his innings as a person who believed in individual style of functioning and not gaining many political friends. When he just began establishing himself, the Centre began undermining his position as a retribution for his opposition to bifurcation.
Mr. Reddy, with his exposure as Government Chief Whip and Speaker, began his stint as Chief Minister on a rather low key not fully trusting party legislators or Cabinet colleagues. His style of functioning soon led to a sense of disappointment among the Ministers who felt that they were not getting their due. He preferred to take his own decisions much to the chagrin of senior Ministers and he soon made more enemies than friends in his cabinet.
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From the talk of his being replaced sooner than later, Mr. Reddy has come a long way by completing three years in office that witnessed high voltage political developments with a series of resignations from his party and defections to the YSR Congress and the TRS.
He faced no-confidence motions successfully on two occasions and managed to keep his Government safe. But, by taking on the high command after the CWC decision on Telangana he has opened a new chapter in the history of the Congress in the last one decade.
It is after a long gap that a Chief Minister chose to revolt going to the extent of asserting that till the last he would fight against division of the State and if necessary, sacrifice his post.
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By challenging the central leadership Mr. Reddy has emerged as the undisputed champion of united AP within the party, which is at the receiving end because of the decision to bifurcate the State. It is not yet clear to what level he would take his battle against bifurcation.
New schemes
During his three years in office, Mr. Reddy is credited with new schemes besides continuing the welfare and development programmes of the former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The ‘Indiramma Baata’ mass contact programme gave an opportunity to his Government to undertake a thorough post-mortem of the on going welfare programmes. The Rachabanda programme brought the governance closer to the people.
Achievement
His biggest achievement was the SC and ST Sub Plan and ‘Bangaru Talli’ legislation. The ‘Bangaru Talli’ scheme entails girl child to get monetary benefit till she completes her education and plans to get married. “Ammahastham’’ scheme saw 2.25 crore people being distributed nine essential commodities at subsidised prices.
‘Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu’ is another programme that provided employment opportunities to the educated youth.