Congress Munugode MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy has once again set the political gossip mills spinning with his latest remarks aimed at Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. The chatter in political corridors is that Komatireddy Jr’s sharp tone stems from being left out of the Cabinet expansion in June. But the man himself insists otherwise — and then promptly muddies the waters. With a straight face, he declares that a Cabinet post “doesn’t matter” to him, and that his true mission is serving the people of Munugode as their MLA. Moments later, he slips in a pointed reminder: The Congress high command had promised him a ministerial berth when he rejoined the party from the BJP before the November 2023 Assembly polls, a promise that has remained unfulfilled. The result is political theatre at its finest — a performance where the script says “I don’t care,” but the subtext screams “Yes, I do.” The man goes up before the party’s disciplinary committee on Sunday. Telangana’s Congress circles are watching closely for the next act. No Phone Calls, Only Straight TalkIt’s not quite often that people acknowledge that a bureaucrat has hit the bullseye but Rajanna Sircilla district collector Sandeep Kumar Jha has apparently been on target on this front. And helping him get there is senior Congress leader Katakam Mrutyunjayam who has been having a go at Jha, alleging that the collector was possibly working at the behest of his political rivals and that the official must explain why he was being asked to present himself at the collectorate for questioning about his licensed firearm. Mrutyunjayam’s post on social media that attempts were being made to cancel his arms licence and the collector was unwilling to discuss it on phone, and if he has to run around, the plight of common people can only be imagined, did some quick rounds for a while. The Congress leader may have his grouse but, in the end, the general opinion doing the rounds was that the collector is just being strict and following rules and is not straying from staying on target. Of Bottles Flung and Abuses HurledThe season for the fur to start flying is still some ways off in the run up to the elections to the local bodies in Telangana but political tempers are already rising if the incident involving Asifabad MLA Kova Laxmi of the BRS throwing water bottles at Congress’ constituency in-charge Shyam Naik is anything to go by. With the BJP too vested fairly heavily in the district, the waters, if anything, are far from clear. The incident at the KB Asifabad district’s ration card distribution function where water bottles flew and Naik called Laxmi an illiterate, points to much more ‘action’ in the days to come. When the time comes, what remains to be seen is if the flying bottles will be a one time thing, or things will get worse with political heavyweights Vedma Bojju of Congress and Ritesh Rathod of BJP in Khanapur, Payal Shankar of BJP and Jogu Ramanna of BRS in Adilabad, former BRS MLA Koneru Konappa and Palvai Harish Babu of BJP in Sirpur (T) set to butt heads. Maytas Man Tries To Get A Game OnSome people master the art of striding in the power corridors irrespective of the party in rule, and Bandaru Narasimha Rao aka ‘Maytas’ Narasimha Rao is one such who works through his connections in political parties and bureaucratic circles. He made his humble beginnings with the ‘Satyam’ Ramalinga Raju's infra wing Maytas, where his primary task was to liaison with the government on irrigation and other infra projects. After Maytas went bust, Narasimha Rao, by then settled well financially, leaned onto the now BJP MP C.M. Ramesh to extend his connections to the national capital, and quickly earned a reputation for extending ‘hospitality’ to senior babus of Andhra and Telangana when they want to ‘relax’ in Delhi. His attempt to pursue a political career by contesting for the Lok Sabha from the coastal town of Machilipatnam falling by the wayside, Narasimha Rao prevailed upon Jana Sena chief and AP Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan to make him the vice-president of the Andhra Cricket Association, pursuing an all-out strategy to grow with the blessings of ICC chief Jay Shah. Thus proving the once ‘Maytas’ man, if nothing, is not a giver-up when it comes to pursuing his favourite career — working the connections in political parties and bureaucratic circles. Finder Not Keeper of Tummala’s Lost Phone This doesn’t quite ring true, say the cops, but a woman under scrutiny after claiming to have found Telangana’s agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao’s lost phone says the police are simply pressing the wrong buttons in trying to close the case. The device was lost by Tummala during his recent visit to Karimnagar with ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar and Laxman Kumar. The phone reportedly disappeared from Tummala’s possession after the ration card distribution event in Keshavapatnam mandal. With the missing mobile...