Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Congress sees bid to advance poll

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Oct. 15. The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee today launched a trenchant attack on the ruling Telugu Desam Party for its "efforts to advance the Assembly elections and derive political mileage out of the attack on the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu". The PCC, however, reiterated that the party was prepared to face elections.

Several senior Congress leaders, including the PCC president, D. Srinivas, the CLP leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Dasari Narayana Rao, MP, P. Shiv Shankar and G. Venkataswamy, former Union Ministers, alleged that in the light of several scams including the fake stamp paper scam and scholarship scam, the TDP was trying to create "artificial sympathy'' following the attack on the Chief Minister. But the efforts would not yield result as people understood "the designs'' of the ruling party leadership which was trying to "hoodwink'' them.

Alleging that the ruling party could not create any assets or complete any major projects during its more than eight-year tenure, the PCC leaders, who participated in a public meeting to mark the conclusion of the 45-day Jan Jagaran Abhiyan, called upon the Congress leaders and cadre to expose the "misrule" by the State and Central Governments. The PCC also released a 22-point chargesheet outlining the `misrule' of the TDP Government.

The PCC president termed as "unfortunate" the ruling party's efforts to bank on the attack on the Chief Minister and mobilise support to the party in the next elections. Any official announcement on the advancement of polls was yet to be made though. "The same TDP leaders who charged the Congress with indulging in politics of murder after the death of the former Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, are now indulging in it," he said.

The CLP leader lashed out at the Chief Minister for his reported remarks that he would concentrate on streamlining the administration after his "rebirth" even while admitting that there were some lapses in administrative and policy matters during the past few years.

"There is nothing more shameless than the ruling party's efforts to bank on the attack on Mr. Naidu to cover up its failures in governance," he said adding "the artificial sympathy,'' like the experiments on artificial rain, would not help the TDP. To illustrate his claim, he cited the elections held after the death of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in which the people of Andhra Pradesh voted against the Congress despite the sympathy wave engulfing the country.

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