Rosaiah completes 100 days as CM

Rosaiah took over as Chief Minister on September 3 following the death of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash the previous day.

The first ten days of Rosaiah's stint went in mourning for Rajasekhara Reddy and the next 40 days in political uncertainty over his continuance as Chief Minister in the wake of demand for anointing Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy as the successor to his late father.

Amidst this came the unprecedented floods in different parts of the state that kept everyone engaged for more than 35 days.
Over the last 15 days, the Chief Minister has been busy in fire-fighting over the Telangana issue and now the integrated Andhra Pradesh movement that has gained momentum in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Governance has become the biggest casualty in Andhra Pradesh as the state has been moving from "one crisis to the other" for over three months now.
"There is a crisis but its not so much crippling. There is certainly an amount of slackness in the governance. Lack of a strong leadership is obvious," said a Cabinet minister.

Political observers and some leaders acknowledge that Rosaiah, given his vast political experience, is an "able administrator" but not an "able leader."
"There is inarguably a (political) leadership vacuum in the state, caused by the death of Rajasekhara Reddy," the minister said.
Bureaucrats point out that there has been a lack of "cohesiveness" in the administration since Reddy's death.
"Everything is happening in a routine fashion but there is no guidance as such from the top on effectively carrying the government programmes forward," said a district Collector.

For much of these 100 days, the Chief Minister was busy trying to make his cabinet colleagues fall in line and get down to serious administrative business, as a majority of them were jumping over each other to display their loyalty to Jaganmohan Reddy.
The Chief Minister's attempts to tone up the administration through a bureaucratic shake-up did not materialise for one reason or the other.
"This has also left the bureaucracy in a state of despondency, leaving a telling impact on the administration," a high-ranking IAS officer said.

Political analyst Madabhushi Sridhar said governance in the state has suffered not only during Rosaiah's tenure but also under the Congress in the last five years.
Sridhar said: "It is fortunate that Rosaiah has become the Chief Minister of the state but it is unfortunate that he has been kept in a condition of uncertainty for a longer time."

On his 100th day in office, Rosaiah has been faced with over 100 resignations (of MLAs), a mark of the political crisis the state has plunged into, he said.
Added to all these is the grave financial crunch that the state has been facing.
The state's coffers have dried up and the government is dragging the cart through borrowings from different sources. All the major development projects have virtually come to a standstill as the government is yet to pay contractors.
Uncertainty prevails over welfare programmes as the subsidy bill has become too much to bear for the government.

With the political crisis stirred by the resignation of MLAs and MLCs from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions likely to continue for some more days and with no signs of the movements for separate Telangana and unified Andhra Pradesh abating, real governance will continue to be on the back burner till then.