The Hindu : Congress leaders lash out at Naidu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress leaders lash out at Naidu

By our Special Correspondent

N. Ramamurthy Naidu speaking at the Congress meeting in Tirupati on Wednesday. (Right) Party workers clashing in front of the meeting venue.

TIRUPATI, JAN. 21. Congress leaders poured scorn on the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, at a meeting held here on Wednesday by the District Congress Committee in connection with the visit of the AICC observer, Narayanaswamy (MP and Pondicherry PCC leader), and the two PCC coordinators -- Gade Venkat Reddy and Kamatam Rami Reddy.

Being the first major initiative of the district party unit to prepare the cadre for the ensuing elections and to iron out differences among various groups, the DCC president, P. Ramachandra Reddy, succeeded in bringing on to the same platform various group leaders which were hitherto not seeing eye to eye. Among the notable participants was N. Ramamurthy Naidu, the estranged brother of the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, who joined the party recently. He, hardly concealing his ire at his brother, vowed to make him bite the dust and said he would focus on Kuppam indicating that he would not mind being pitted against his own brother in the constituency.

Mr. Narayanaswamy, while lashing out at Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, said that for Mr. Naidu, only Hyderabad meant the entire AP as otherwise he would not have dumped bulk of the World Bank loan between Hyderabad airport and Jubilee Hills leaving the rural poor to their fate. Let George Bush and Tony Blair, about whom Mr. Naidu often talks, come and see the rural areas of the State, then they would know the type of persons whom they praised and eulogised, he criticised.

The PCC leader, Kamatham Rami Reddy, said the very fact that the Chief Minister's own brother left him and joined the Congress showed the state of affairs in the TDP.

Mr. Venkat Reddy, who initiated the diatribe with his opening remarks, was, however, milder and wanted the cadre to eschew differences.

N. Subramanyam, former Tirupati MP, whose ticket for the 1999 election was `hijacked' by Chintha Mohan shortly before he was to file his nomination for the seat, said if such things were repeated, God only should save the party.

The PCC secretary, B. Karunakar Reddy, said that the party's rank and file had no doubts over overwhelming voter support but they were only sceptical about the overtures of their own leaders. Another PCC secretary, Padmaja, said that Mr. Naidu's own family members were leaving him.

Fisticuffs at meet

As the meeting began, there were fisticuffs between the followers of the Tirupati town Congress president, Venkatramana and the followers of Peddabba, son of the former Tirupati MLA, Mabbu Rami Reddy.

Another was a frenzied demonstration before the venue towards the end by followers of the former Chittoor MLA, C.K. Babu demanding lifting of his suspension imposed by the high command following his involvement in an alleged murder case.

His followers trouped into the venue and pressed their demand giving a tough time for Mr. Venkat Reddy in pacifying them.

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