The Hindu : TDP flayed for targeting Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TDP flayed for targeting Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 3. The Congress has reacted sharply to the TDP decision to make its leader, Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin an election issue.

Addressing separate press conferences, the PCC president, D. Srinivas, and the party's chief spokesperson, K. Rosaiah, on Tuesday termed the move "political bankruptcy' and asked the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, to reveal the reasons behind his silence over the issue "all these years.'' Like the BJP, the TDP too was throwing up symptoms related to `election fever' as it had not talked about the same earlier when the other States had gone to the polls, they said.

The TDP should have cited the same "stale argument" as a reason for dissolving the Assembly instead of preferring worsened law and order situation and non-development of the State, they said. Perhaps, the ruling party, like its partner, the BJP, did not have any other platform to seek votes, they added.

Reiterating the charge that the TDP had failed on all fronts, the Congress leaders challenged it to showcase a single achievement in the elections to gain the confidence of people. The TDP, after all, had been groping in the dark regarding the right election slogans as its "anti-people policies'' had distanced it from the voters, they said. The problem was forcing them to seek diversion of the voters' attention by bringing in "illogical arguments,'' they felt.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the AP Mahila chief, J. Geeta Reddy, said the TDP would not have raked up the issue if it had any respect for the law of the land and the judiciary. The Supreme Court had already ruled in favour of Ms. Gandhi regarding her Indian citizenship, she reminded the TDP.

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