The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Dasari's birthday bash gets political

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Dasari's birthday bash gets political

By Our Special Correspondent

The APCC president, D. Srinivas, greeting the Rajya Sabha member, Dasari Narayana Rao, on the latter's birthday on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD, MAY 4. The Rajya Sabha member and Congress campaign committee chairman, Dasari Narayana Rao's birthday bash on Tuesday turned out to be a political event despite the political leaders claiming that it was just a goodwill visit.

Prominent among those who shared the cake and joined Mr. Narayana Rao for photo sessions were the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president, D. Srinivas, G. Venkata Swamy, U. Purushottam Reddy, Mukesh Goud, D. Vittal Rao and G. Chinna Reddy. The former PCC president, M. Satyanarayana Rao, was among the early callers but he did not stay for long. He just greeted him on the occasion of his 59th birthday and left the place.

However, the gathering mostly consisted of the lower rung of the Congress functionaries. The absence of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, former Congress Legislature Party leader, became a point of discussion. He conveyed telephonic greetings to Mr. Narayana Rao in the morning. Though Mr. Srinivas and Mr. Narayana Rao denied any interest in the race for Chief Ministership, their followers felt otherwise.

Party sources said move was on to rally all the forces against Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy. "We have committed a mistake by going to the press earlier in a bid to stall Dr. Reddy's entry into the race. We will not repeat it now but work silently," a senior Congress leader admitted. He added that it would not be difficult to secure a majority support to "our candidate".

On record, Mr. Srinivas said that any speculation or claim over the Chief Minister's post was premature and the controversy itself was a creation of the media. He said he had been to New Delhi to submit a report on the elections to the AICC and also to campaign on behalf of the party in Telugu speaking areas of the capital.

Later, Mr. Narayana Rao took a similar line agreeing that it was not the time for resorting to speculation. He refused to comment on the choice of the party and said the Congress had a democratic tradition of electing their leaders. It would be better if the candidate were an MLA as was the norm, he said. He himself was out of the race "250 per cent", he said.

On the other hand, a meeting of Telangana leaders held on Monday with about 25 Assembly contestants from the region in attendance where it was decided to pledge support to Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Meanwhile, the activity at Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy's residence was intense with more contestants dropping in to declare support to his leadership.

The Congress leader is leaving for Delhi tomorrow to campaign for the party in the capital. In a statement, he appealed to the Telugus living in North India to support the Congress and defeat the National Democratic Alliance in the elections.

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