READY FOR BATTLE: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu with a sword presented to him by the Telugu Yuvata at the party meeting in Nizamabad on Tuesday.

NIZAMABAD: Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu charged the Bharatiya Janata Party with trying to spoil communal harmony for its "political mileage" by driving a wedge among different religions.

"We have to be cautious on its `evil designs' and should strive for protecting communal harmony which is most important to us. We never joined hands with the BJP even during the NDA regime and supported it only from outside," he sought to remind while addressing a party workers' meeting here on Tuesday.

Coming down heavily on the Congress, BJP and Telangana Rashtra Samiti during his 50-minute speech, he said the Congress had no love for minorities. Only to secure their votes during electioneering, offhandedly it had announced 5 per cent reservations for Muslims in Government jobs, which proved futile.

The TDP offered three per cent reservations to minorities after carefully thinking from all angles. Three per cent reservations would be easy to implement, but the Congress vitiated the reservation prospects for minorities by declaring five per cent, he clarified.

Both Congress and BJP played hide and seek games in the case of Nuclear Disarmament in Iran by voting in favour of the United States even when its President George W. Bush had invaded Iraq and resorted to mayhem in Iran. "Iran is our friendly nation. Congress seems to have forgotten our non-aligned policy and supported the country which is dubbed as anti-Muslim," he said.

Staying united

"We need to protect the secular fabric of the nation. If we are not united several problems will plague the society," he warned and sought to remind the party workers that late N.T. Rama Rao always dreamt of the unity of all Telugu speaking people in the State.

"All Telugu speaking people belong to one single family. There may be some regional imbalances due to some historical reasons. However, our party remains committed to unity of the State and equal development of all regions," he added.

Mr. Naidu said economic development, combating poverty, protecting communal harmony and ensuring trickle down of developmental fruits to the grass root level people were the priorities of his party agenda. Unfortunately, the rich were becoming richer and the poor poorer, he said.

In his presidential address earlier, TDP district chief Pocharam Srinivas Reddy hoped that the party would regain its past glory and popularity as the party workers rededicated themselves to strengthen it.

Former Ministers Mandava Venkateswar Rao, E. Peddi Reddy and P. Babu Mohan and party general secretary Sd. Yousuf Ali also spoke. Mr. Naidu, who will be in the town for two days, later took up constituency wise review on the party's performance.

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