The Hindu : Indrasena evasive on Tirupati LS seat issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 29, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Indrasena evasive on Tirupati LS seat issue

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, MARCH 28. The State BJP President, N. Indrasena Reddy, found himself on a sticky wicket when mediapersons shot at him a spate of questions on the party's earlier decision over the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP's selection committee had initially decided to give up the Tirupati seat which it had won with a comfortable margin in the last election and swap it with the Nellore seat. The party's rank and file protested, saying it would result in the party going unrepresented in the entire Rayalaseema region. Tirupati was the lone seat which the party held in the region constituting south Andhra in the dissolved House. The BJP had staked its claim this time to the Nellore Lok Sabha seat apparently at the instance of its national president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, who hailed from the place. In the seat-sharing, the BJP decided to give up its Tirupati seat and instead go in for the Nellore seat. However, following protests the party had to beat a quick retreat and announce that it was dropping the swap move and retaining the Tirupati seat also.

When newsmen raised the issue, the BJP State president had no direct answer. He could not give any convincing reply to the query as to how the party's election committee had lost sight of such a basic factor and decided to sacrifice the well-serviced Tirupati seat. The final position now is that the party has taken both Tirupati and Nellore and surrendered its Mahaboobnagar seat.

On the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, he remarked that it was a mistake to allow her to become Opposition leader and asserted that the question of her nationality was very much a poll issue.

He said Mr. Venkaiah Naidu would make a two-day whirlwind campaign in Cuddapah, Chittoor, Anantapur and Nellore districts from April 1.

Mr. Indrasena Reddy said the party would go to the electorate in the State with its slogan whether they wanted development or devastation accusing the Congress, the TRS and the Communists having nexus with naxalites. On talks with naxalites, he opined that a joint effort was needed to solve the issue as other States were also facing the problem.

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Andhra Pradesh