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Raju's defection rattles Naidu

Shireen in Hyderabad

Rattled by the 'defection' of a Telugu Desam Party member of Parliament to the Congress on Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and party president Nara Chandrababu Naidu has urged President K R Narayanan to take measures to prevent 'horse trading' before the formation of an alternative government at the Centre.

Addressing the media in Hyderabad on Tuesday night after party MP Satrucherla Vijayarama Raju revolted against the TDP and announced support for the Congress, Naidu said that the President should take cognisance of the unfolding political situation before taking any decision on an alternative government.

He said that the President should seek letters of support from the parties intending to back a Congress government. He urged the President not to take cognisance of the support extended by some MPs ''who are deserting their parties. The aim of (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi is to grab power at any cost and this is not motivated by the intention of serving the people but the greed to mortgage the interests of the nation," he said.

Naidu said that the Congress, with just 140 members in the Lok Sabha, wanted to come to power by reaching the simple majority mark of 272 members.

The TDP chief alleged that Raju was enticed with offers of both money and posts. "I will take action against Raju after getting all the details on how he was lured by the Congress," he said.

Naidu said that out of the remaining 11 Lok Sabha members of his party, four were in Hyderabad, four were camping in Delhi and three were in their native places.

He said that a meeting of the TD parliamentary party has been convened this evening to evolve the strategy for countering the Congress' blatant moves to cause a split in his party.

Terming Raju's media conference in Delhi as unprecedented, Naidu said he had spoken to the MP twice during the day when Raju had assured that he did not intend to join the Congress.

But the MP later addressed the media at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi. This only showed that he was kept captive there after being offered huge inducements for shifting loyalties.

The Congress was, in fact, trying to split various other parties by offering money and posts, he said.

Lashing out at Sonia 'who is new to politics' for allowing her partymen to induce defections, he said that such unethical acts would make the political parties lose their credibility.

He said that "Sonia Gandhi, Arjun Singh and Pranab Mukherjee have been indulging in open horse trading, as is done at the panchayat level''.

He said that the Congress had summoned all the state Congress chiefs and legislature party leaders to Delhi to engineer defections. "The Congress will pay a heavy price in the assembly elections in the state in December this year since its image has taken a drubbing," he said.

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