Andhra Pradesh   

CPI (M) asked to justify `rank opportunism' in A.P.

Special Correspondent

YSR lashes out at the communists for joining hands with TDP

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy upped the ante further in the panchayat raj elections by asking the CPI (M) to justify "its rank opportunism" in joining hands with the Telugu Desam Party here on Tuesday.

Before taking the CPI (M) head-on, he had a talk with AICC president Sonia Gandhi in the morning. Ms. Gandhi was apprised of the party mood vis-à-vis the CPI (M) by APCC president K. Keshava Rao too. It is learnt that the Congress high command decided to leave the matter of an alliance with the Marxists to the State unit.

At a press conference, Dr. Reddy did not mince words in attacking the CPI (M) by asking how a progressive and secular party could join hands with the TDP which had earlier allied with the BJP. Ridiculing the claim of CPI (M) State secretary B. V. Raghavulu that his party had no alliance but only accepting the support of the TDP, he asked: "Is giving support in elections a philanthropic act ?"

He said in politics "it is always a case of you scratch my back and I scratch yours" and hence no one would buy the argument that the CPI (M) was enjoying the TDP support without an electoral understanding. Recalling his recent breakfast meeting with the three Marxist Chief Ministers during the three-day CPI (M) Central Committee meeting here, Dr. Reddy said West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had ruled out a tie-up with the TDP saying "we are not that opportunistic."

The fight between the Congress and the Leftists was confined to States like West Bengal or Kerala where they were main rivals, but "not in States like Andhra Pradesh where the bigger enemies of secular forces existed." Terming TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu as "a born opportunist", he said the latter conveniently switched alliances with the BJP for the sake of power. Mr. Naidu's criticism of his rule had almost become farcical since "devoid of issues, he is criticising my mannerisms, including my smile."

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