Speaking to news persons at Chennai, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy(YSR) suggested B Ramalinga Raju should be made India’s finance minister, as country needs a full time finance minister(currently Manmohan Singh - Official Prime Minister of India is taking care of Finance ministry).

Recently, “Satyam” India’s fourth largest software services provider was in news for all wrong reasons. To top it all, came revelations from Satyam’s Chairman Ramalinga Raju’s stepping down letter to SEBI (Stock Exchange Board of India) which stated, “profits in the company were inflated over the years, leading to wide gap between real and imaginary assets”. India Inc and media are shocked by these revelations.

But YSR is of different opinion. He confidently said, “Last year India’s Sensex was around 21,000 points and economy was growing at a healthy rate of 8.9%. But this year share market is reeling less than 9,000 points and economy growth rate is mere 6.8%. How to overcome this gloomy scenario and influx cash flow? Our country really need some one with excellent track record of tailoring audit reports and performs shadowy corporate governance. I can’t think of a person better than Ramalingam Raju.” Many Andhra Pradesh politicians endorsed his views.

Praja Rajyam Party leader, Chiranjeevi (Chiru) , speaking at a road show in Nellore  said, “If Ramalinga Raju is willing to become finance minister he can. If he is not willing he can’t” in a conclusive tone he is famous for.

Though differing with YSR on every issue, TDP supreme and former CM, Chandrababu Naidu too had supported YSR’s proposal. However Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) made his support only conditional saying that, “TRS will support Ramalinga Raju only if he accepts Separate Telengana”.

Speaking on this latest development, Satyam’s spokes woman at Hyderabad said, “Satyam chairman is humbled by the trust of political leaders and is willing to take up the finance minister position if a request directly comes from Prime Minister”.

Taking a dig at the conduct of Tamil Nadu political parties in the run-up to the Thirumangalam assembly by-election Chief Election Commissioner Gopalaswami termed - when it comes to poll violations, the southern state is worse than UP, Bihar and even Zimbabwe.

Tirumangalam assembly by-election on January 9 is hotly contested between formidable Dravidian Parties - Karunanidhi led DMK and Jayalalitha led AIADMK. This by-election run-up saw wide spread violation of election norms with both parties luring voters with money and almost day to day incidents of violence.

CEC Gopalaswami too made a special mention of wide spread violations in Tirumangalam. Speaking to reporters at Mumbai airport the CEC said - “when it comes to poll violations even UP, Bihar can’t compete with Tamil Nadu any more; Tamil Nadu can even edge out Zimbabwe in this department”.

In India, comparison to UP, Bihar is common as these two populous states were normally considered as a bench mark for how low things can get to in India. But comparison of TN bye-election to Zimbabwe elections is what makes CEC statement more controversial. Last year Zimbabwe elections were denounced by western world as a disgrace to democracy. The controversial poll was infamous for mass poll riggings which led to a tussle between opposition and President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party. The stalemate continued for months and normalcy returned only after European Union and African Union jointly intervened to broker a power sharing deal between ruling and opposing factions. Many political observers in Tamil Nadu were unhappy with the comparison of TN by-election scenario to a world known democratic disaster.

TN chief electoral officer Naresh Gupta had said in Chennai that CEC Gopalaswami’s comments were regrettable. He declined to take further questions.