The Hindu : `TDP will emerge stronger'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`TDP will emerge stronger'

By Dasu Kesava Rao

HYDERABAD, FEB.21. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has said the upcoming election will be `historic' as it will see the Telugu Desam Party emerge stronger and position Andhra Pradesh on ``a high pedestal of progress and economic freedom.''

The `present leadership' would be remembered for long for the record of service and development that transformed Andhra Pradesh into a forward-looking State, a model to all, he said.

Mr. Naidu was interacting with some correspondents at his Jubilee Hills residence on Saturday, ahead of the Telugu Desam's "Vijayabheri" heralding the ruling party's election campaign. "It will be a never-before kind of rally,'' he assured, without mentioning the figure, but party seniors insisted the turnout would be close to two million.

He predicted that the election would be "one-sided" because people recognised the TDP Government's record of service and development and above all, `our credibility.' Unfazed by the prospect of a concerted opposition attack to unseat him, he said the Congress and the TRS forged an "unholy alliance.'' The TRS would score dismally, and the Congress would get further weakened as people knew it did little for Telangana while the Left parties would see themselves further marginalised, he said. In a dig at the TRS chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he said it was strange that Mr. Rao "who cannot tolerate fellow Telugus from other regions" should have no qualms in accepting `a foreigner' as Prime Minister.

"It will be one-sided. Who do I fight against? My adversary is yet to be named," he said when asked about his reading of the election scenario. The 1999 Assembly poll was widely seen as a battle between him and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. It was not the same now. The morale of the Telugu Desam cadre was so high that they found fault with him for not `sounding confident enough.'' Mr. Naidu said he did not want confidence to turn into complacence.

The Telugu Desam supremo said winning in Pulivendhula, the home constituency of Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy in Cuddapah district, would not be impossible provided `we find the right man.' To justify this, he recalled how K. Vijayarama Rao, a political greenhorn, had defeated P. Janardhan Reddy, then CLP leader and considered invincible in the Khairtabad constituency. He said the YSR family had held all important elected posts in Cuddapah for 25 years, yet the district and Pulivendula in particular continued to remain backward. Recalling his contribution to the development of Kuppam, he regretted that `some politicians have more faith in rowdyism than in development and service.'

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