Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao, who once played a virtual ex-constitutional authority role during the regime of his soul mate Y S Rajasekhar Reddy in the combined Andhra Pradesh, has been lying low for quite some time.
Occasionally, he surfaces on the Congress platforms but not in public glare.
In July, he was part of a press conference of the Congress leaders in Delhi to criticise the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for targeting Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by using the central investigation agencies like the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
Last time when KVP was seen speaking in public was on September 2, 2021 when YSR’s wife and former MLA Y S Vijayamma held an “Atmeeya Sammelanam” to commemorate her husband’s 12th death anniversary at Hyderabad and also to seek blessings for her daughter Y S Sharmila’s new party in Telangana.
This year, KVP himself organised an event at Hyderabad on Friday evening to release his book – Jalayagnam, Polavaram, Oka Sahasi Prayanam – on how YSR had struggled to construct the Polavaram major irrigation project on Godavari river.
KVP invited all the leaders, media persons and other dignitaries who were directly or indirectly related to Polavaram project and also closer to YSR, to the book releasing function at Daspalla Hotel in Hyderabad.
Among the invitees were: former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumars and T Subbarami Reddy, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, former irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and former industries minister J Geetha Reddy, former Supreme Court chief justice Justice J Chalameshwar, former advisor to former Prime Minister Sanjaya Baru, former chief secretary P Ramakanth Reddy, BJP leader Kamineni Srinivas and CPI national secretary K Narayana.
However, not a single leader from the ruling YSR Congress party was invited to the programme, including present irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu, who was also a close confidant of YSR.
Of course, there was one leader from YSRC – Narasapuram MP Kanumuru Raghu Ramakrishna Raju, but he cannot claim to represent the party, as he is a bitter critic of his own party leadership and moreover, he is a relative of KVP.
There was no mention of the progress of the Polavaram work during the YSRC government. On the other hand, KVP openly expressed regret that the project has become of politics between the two regional parties.
He found fault with the governments for not able to get funds from the Centre despite it being declared as a national project. There was not even a mention of the installation of YSR statue at the Polavaram project site.
Only Vundavalli took Jagan’s name and demanded that the chief minister should explain when the diaphragm wall would be repaired and when the project would be completed.
