Mangalagiri should not be the location for new capital of Andhra Pradesh State

Mangalagiri is a valuable forest. Plan for the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh right there pains the environmentalist in me. There are many alternate vast lands instead of Mangalagiri -- with no forest cover, with no irrigated fields. Destroying a forest to build a new city, when so many alternate cheap lands are available, is a crime against humanity.

The best location for the new Andhra Pradesh state capital is near the border of Andhra & Rayalaeema. The new city can be shared even if any future bifurcation takes place.

Two friends -- Two recent book releases

Two of my good friends have recently released their books. Do check them out!

1) James Carmichael released the first of the five part sci-fantasy book Erra's Throne. I went to Chicago Booth with him and he is a very talented writer.

Link to the book: www.amazon.com/Erras-Throne-Column-Tablet-Book-ebook/dp/B00LCSRS6I

2) Vishwas Mudagal released his debut novel Losing my Religion that is based in an Indian setting. I explored an entrepreneurial venture with Vishwas in 2004 and have known him since then.

Link to the book: www.amazon.in/Losing-My-Religion-Vishwas-Mudagal/dp/8172344937

Sad news -- Lok Satta leader Vijayender Reddy dies in road accident

It is really shocking to know that Vijayender Reddy, who has devoted more than 18 years of the most productive phase of his life for public service, is no more. He died in a car accident. He is 48 and was emerging as a key Telangana state leader.

Though I personally worked with Vijayender Reddy on very few activities, I had a strong rapport with him. He liked me a lot for various reasons and considered himself my guide. He used to feel very happy whenever I was around and that was very much visible often.

He was one of the first members of the Lok Satta movement and he held on to his beliefs against incredible challenges. He was the "Telangana Mass Maharaja" of Lok Satta. He used to inspire hundreds of people among low-income groups to come to various public events. Over the years, his enthusiasm had tempered down a bit due to public apathy towards involving themselves in good governance. However, for the last few months, he was extremely happy with the creation of Telangana state and he was busy making plans to reach out to Telanganites in rural places on a massive scale.

Our relationship strengthened when he called me one day to give unsolicited advice. There were certain organizational challenges that I was facing/handling and with a genuine concern for me, he made the phone call. His wise advice was very helpful to me at that time.

Thereafter, he continued to treat me like his trusted friend. Very recently, he had called me one month ago for certain reasons and I was supposed to get back to him. Before I could, he has passed away.

His life is an example of the troubles many honest people face when they enter public life to do good to the society. He did not devote time to improve the quality of his life but used most of his time and energy for the people. Yet, public were indifferent to his efforts. His efforts will not go in waste because it has strengthened immensely a movement to bring in better governance.

He leaves behind his wife, a son and a daughter. He came from a very modest financial background, leaves behind very modest financial sources for his family, but does manage to create a powerful story of public service. A story of 18 years of sweat and sacrifice.

I congratulate the people of Telangana for the new State of Telangana

Today, the new State of Telangana becomes a reality. The credit for this mainly goes to the people of Telangana who supported the movement for the creation of the new state.

The state of Telangana has three advantages now:
1) In this age of urbanization and globalization, Hyderabad is the biggest asset of Telangana and her people should ensure that Hyderabad city reaches greater heights

2) Telangana is a budget-surplus state and this should be used for creation of growth infrastructure across the state, so that the revenues generated can only become bigger in coming years

3) The flourish of regional identity, culture, language, history and arts to propel the new state towards a wholesome society that is happy with its destiny.

Telangana should become a bright jewel in the crown of Indian federal structure.

I thank Raghuveer Mukkamalla for his service to the nation

Today, Raghuveer Mukkamalla, the Vice President - Finance of PFL, has announced his resignation. It was always a pleasure to work with him. I have been working with him since 2010 when I was the Vice President - Finance of PFL. Later on, in 2012, he stepped in to my shoes in PFL. In addition to this responsibility, he has devoted few thousand hours of his time and also significant monetary contribution for the sake of bringing about better politics in India. He mainly worked for improving the lives of the people in Kukatpally constituency in Hyderabad city, though he lives in the Washington D.C. area in the U.S.

I look forward to working with him again sometime.

You can reach out to him at raghuveerm @ gmail.com to convey your thanks.

Second place in postal ballot results in Malkajgiri Assembly

We at 'Dilip for Malkajgiri' campaign get second place in postal ballot in Malkajgiri Assembly. Results declared yesterday.

Total postal ballot votes received: 520
Total valid votes: 467
1) TRS: 161
2) LSP: 144 -> yours truly
3) BJP/TDP: 73
4) Congress: 43
5) YSRCP: 24
6) AAP: 7

To an extent, this again shows the strong support for us in Malkajgiri Assembly among educated employees. TRS getting the highest votes should be due to the sentiment factor even among educated employees.

Thank you for your support -- Malkajgiri Assembly elections 2014

Volunteers, supporters and well-wishers,

Thank you for your support in various forms since May 2012 for the campaign -- donating, volunteering and spreading the good word.

The results for United Andhra Pradesh State Assembly elections are declared and mainly due to the highly-polarized voting pattern among the electorate due to the highly emotional Telangana issue, I could not secure a victory.

Those who supported the cause of Telangana voted for TRS and those who did not support the cause, voted for TDP/BJP combine. Mine and our party's voice was lost out in these emotional developments.

Till the election day, I was one among the four candidates who were perceived by the public to be in the race for victory. But on the polling day, we observed two trends -- highly polarized polling due to the regional divide and low voting percentage of only 52% (a low voter turnout meant that upper/mid-middle class voters, who usually support us, did not turn up to vote).

I secured 12,121 votes out of 2,31,108 votes polled. The polarization resulted in TRS winning by securing 77,132 votes while the BJP/TDP got 74,364 votes for the second position.

That said, I must share the good news that a large section of people indeed perceived me as "someone who can do a good job that will be better than other contestants". They believed my track-record, "respected" and "liked" me as a person. Even our message during our campaign was in sync to what people perceived about me.

The fact that I delivered the second-best result in United Andhra Pradesh for our party (both in number of votes secured -12121, and vote share percentage secured - 5.24% ) gives credence to this. (best performance is from our State President who contested from Kukatpally constituency that we had won in 2009 -- 13004 votes and 5.6% vote share).

I will continue to spend some of my time in public initiatives and I will work towards implementing part of my public initiatives in Malkajgiri constituency.

I seek your continued support.