AICC Observer Vayalar Ravi’s three-day visit has raised eyebrows in political circles particularly since it comes at a time when Kiran Reddy himself is in New Delhi on a three-day visit. The party grapevine has it that the reason behind this sudden decision was that the party leadership wanted an independent view on various issues including the rift between Kiran Reddy and State Congress unit chief Botsa Satyanarayana, the separate Telangana statehood demand and the emergence of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy as a political force to reckon with, particularly after the drubbing suffered by the ruling party in the recent by-elections. The High Command is concerned about its prospects in the impending by-elections to 18 Assembly seats which was necessitated by the disqualification of lawmakers loyal to Jagan.

The Congress emissary has lost no time in going about his mission, meeting dozens of party lawmakers and senior leaders in the past couple of days.

Damodar Reddy’s tirade with jealous comments on Ravi’s breakfast meeting:

Damodar Reddy, was a staunch separate Telangana leader some time back, but later calmed down after Kiran took over as CM. He is a strong supporter of Kiran Kumar Reddy. He already took on Botsa Satyanarayna directly, saying two posts for one person should be done away with.

Vayalar Ravi’s breakfast meeting with Chiranjeevi at the latter’s residence seems to have caused a big heartburn to Damodar Reddy. Completely blind eyed of  Vayalar Ravi’s visit to Palvai Govardhan Reddy’s place where Ravi spent more than an hour ; Reddy said Vayalar’s action of going to  Chiranjeevi’s house would only encourage group politics within Congress!

R. Damodar Reddy faulted AICC emissary Vayalar Ravi for visiting the residence of Congress member of the Rajya Sabha K. Chiranjeevi for breakfast on Wednesday.

Damodar Reddy seems to have picked up direct verbal dual with Vayalar reasoning this issue,  when the latter came to Gandhi Bhavan humiliating a central leader before every one. Palvai Govardhan Reddy intervened when situation was going out of hands and stopped Damodar Reddy who started shouting at Vayalar Ravi!

Damodar Reddy also seems to have commented saying that “It was Ghulam Nabi Azad yesterday and Ravi today. Who will come tomorrow and what will he do?” clearly indicating that Ravi’s visit is unwelcomed. Mr. Reddy launched a tirade against the party's central leadership for sending observers to Andhra Pradesh to assess the situation and doing precious little late.

Damodar Reddy never raised any objections nor did he pick fights when in many earlier occasions, AICC Observers visited many leader’s houses ( Renuka Chowdary, GVK) for dinner, breakfasts.

Many believe that CM Kiran Kumar Reddy is very furious over Vayalar Ravi’s visit in spite of he raising objections to Ravi’s visit with high command.

Some believe that, Damodar Reddy sudden tiff with Ravi which is uncalled for may be a preplanned political strategy to humiliate  Vayalar Ravi before other leaders there by a senior leader like Vayalar Ravi can be avoided of  taking responsibility of AP state affairs ensuring  continued  flexibility to present leadership.   It is rumored that a similar behind the back strategy was "successfully" implemented  even at AICC incharge for AP, Gulab Nabi Azad,  by complaining to high command that Azad was looking into his personal affairs ( a matrimonial search for Azad’s daughter) by having breakfast with GVK ..etc.

Minister, Danam Nagender gave a piece of his mind on Damodar Reddy’s  unjustified, unwarranted, jealous comments against Chiranjevi and said “Vayalar went to Palvai Govardhan Reddy’s place and spent more than an hour there. Nobody talked about it. But when Ravi visits Chiranjeevi, that becomes controversial. They don’t like a leader from Backward Classes to be respected or recognized. But for Chiranjeevi, the government would have fallen. When we took Chiranjeevi’s help, nobody objected then,” fumed Danam Nagender.

While on a tour to Godavari districts on Thursday, Ravi said he was not an astrologer to predict the number of seats the Congress would win in the bypolls. During another meeting in Ramachandrapuram constituency, he took potshots at Jaganmohan Reddy alleging that some leaders were floating parties to become CM of the state.

Though  Ravi expressed confidence about the victory of the party, he was not sure of the number of seats the Congress candidates would win. He downplayed the differences within the party, saying they were common in every party. He, however, warned that any anti-party activity would not be spared.