The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress, TDP media blitzkrieg peaks

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Friday, Feb 04, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress, TDP media blitzkrieg peaks

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3. For the past two days, media in the Capital got a feel of the intense competition between the ruling Congress and the Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh, as both the camps launched a media blitzkrieg - keeping pace, "byte-for-byte'' or "quote-for-quote'', as the case may be.

Even before the former Chief Minister and TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, arrived here on Wednesday to petition the Centre seeking removal of the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, following the murder of the party MLA, Paritala Ravi, the Congress camp unleashed counter moves.

Mr. Naidu led a 37-strong delegation to meet the President, the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker and the National Human Rights Commission, with a 14-page memorandum. The demands included a judicial probe into political murders and setting up of special court to try these cases.

TDP poser

On Thursday, he took it further by stating how could the Congress justify violence in Andhra Pradesh when Sonia Gandhi was promising violence-free society in Bihar?

Such was the competition that on Wednesday, the TDP leadership organised a press meet for "national media'' at noonthough the official engagements were scheduled for the evening. The Congress followed it up through the scheduled press conference by the State Information Minister, Mohd. Ali Shabbir, along with State MPs. It is anybody's guess that Mr. Naidu's media managers wanted to upstage the Congress counter, considered necessary in times of round-the-clock television news networks.

Congress turn

Today, it was the Congress turn to repay the compliment. Mr. Naidu held a press meet at 3.30 p.m. at the end of his sojourn here during which he also met the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Congress MPs -- J. Arun Kumar and D. Vittal Rao -- responded swiftly to the TDP charges at a press conference two hours later.

The TDP leaders held their event at the residence of the Rajya Sabha member, K. Rama Mohana Rao, where Mr. Naidu prefers to stay while the Congress show was at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan. Overseeing the Congress counter-strategy was K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, Public Affairs Advisor to the Chief Minister, who is currently on a visit to China.

Known for his hi-tech presentations, Mr. Naidu took recourse to issuing a compact disc carrying their version of event and a booklet listing the "misdeeds'' of the Chief Minster and his family. The Congress responded in an equal measure about the serious charges against the slain MLA and gory pictures of people who were allegedly killed in a brutal manner.

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