The Hindu : Left parties' meet a flop, says BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Left parties' meet a flop, says BJP

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, FEB. 1. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that the meetings of the Communist Party of India(CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at the national-level in the city in the last couple of days were a flop as they were limited to drawing up a strategy to defeat the party on the ground of communalism.

The two Left parties claim to defeat the BJP also arose from alleged pro-imperialist economic policies of BJP-led NDA Government and danger to economic sovereignty of the country from them, the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, B. Dattatreya, the State BJP president, N. Indrasena Reddy, and party spokesmen, S.V. Seshagiri Rao and G. Kishan Reddy, told reporters here on Sunday.

They said these claims of the Left parties were a mere sham as it was proved that communalism was an old and outdated slogan lacking sympathy of the people. As regards the pro-imperialist policies of the Government, the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, had by his admission to invite foreign direct investment in the State in a bigger way than Andhra Pradesh exposed the political opportunism of the Left. He had blatantly praised Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, for the economic reforms undertaken by him and humiliated the Congress by saying `free power' was impractical.

It was up to the CPI(M) to seek an explanation from Mr. Bhattacharya for these remarks and ruling out talks with naxalites, a stand taken by Mr. Naidu.

Mr. Dattatreya said the Left meetings failed to discuss their ideology or future programmes of the parties. Even as they claimed that there could be no alliance with Congress, the Left struck an understanding with the party in 70 Parliamentary constituencies.

The Left parties were irrelevant and marginalised day-by-day.

Earlier, addressing a two-day State-level training camp of publicity secretaries of the party in Assembly constituencies, Mr. Dattatreya warned the BJP cadre that the Opposition would try to divert the attention of the party during election campaign. The Opposition must be pushed to the defensive on issues of development, leadership of the country and peace.

The Andhra Pradesh Press Academy Chairman, I. Venkat Rao, said the coming elections would be fought in a totally new atmosphere as all the parties were changing their strategies.

Contact with TRS denied

Meanwhile, the BJP denied that its national leaders contacted the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in a bid to break its unity moves with the Congress but the TRS was not prepared to issue such a rebuttal.

The BJP leaders said reports about such contacts were `far from true', and alleged that vested interests were behind it.

Addressing a press conference here, the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, B. Dattatreya, the BJP State president, N. Indrasena Reddy, and party spokesmen, S.V. Seshagiri Rao and G. Kishan Reddy, said they had contacted their party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, who had denied that any such political dialogue had taken place with TRS leaders.

"There were no telephone calls from BJP leaders at Delhi to the TRS president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao," they said.

Mr. Indrasena Reddy said the BJP was of the view that the TRS had already entered into an alliance with Congress.

At a separate conference, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, without flatly denying reports of contacts between the BJP and TRS leaders, said "we keep talking to so many people during elections. If it is a matter of significance, I will voluntarily disclose the details".

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