Naidu comes down heavily on Cong.

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, JUNE 30. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has strongly criticised the Congress (I) for its `disruptive and separatist activities' in the State in its desperate bid to destabilise his smooth-running Government.

The Congress (I) had not only lost touch with people but also was clearly out of tune with the aspirations and sentiments of the public having been dumped several times during the last two decades. Its days were numbered and the day was not far off when it would be completely wiped out of the Indian political map, he predicted hardly concealing his ire at the party, which is trying to disturb his applecart by raking up the separate Telangana and Rayalaseema issues.

Kickstarting the TDP's election campaign for the ensuing ZPTC and MPTC elections from the lawns of the SV University grounds in line with the party's convention after a customary darshan of Lord Venkateswara in the hill temple, Mr. Naidu, except for some passing references, singled out the Congress (I) for his outbursts and blamed it for trying to scuttle all his developmental and mass-oriented programmes.

He regretted that the party, despite its severe drubbings at the hustings, was yet to learn any lesson and reorient its programmes to suit the changing moods and needs of people. Its only theme was to grab power through hook or crook and that was why they promised even moon before elections and conveniently ignored it if ever they were elected, Mr. Naidu said referring to the party's promise of free power supply on the election-eve and how it not only backtracked but also enhanced the power tariff steeply in states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh which were under its rule.

He said the party, claiming itself to be a national party, often indulged in double-speak without any national outlook or uniform policy. They speak one thing while in power and exactly the opposite when out of power. The party never liked to devolve powers to the local bodies, he said and pointed out that after the former Chief Minister, Mr. Anjaiah, nobody in the party had held elections to the PR bodies.

Mr. Naidu also blamed the Congress (I) for backtracking on its support to a 3-tier system in PR administration and said that but for the delay caused by the party, the TDP would have held the PR elections along with the municipal elections last year itself.

The Congress (I) was sinking in AP after the advent of the TDP and did not have even the faintest of hopes that it would come back to power in the State. That was why, it was trying to put a spoke in all my developmental programmes to embarrass me and scuttle my programmes. Come what may, I am ready even to lay down my life for the cause of my people and for the cause of my party but would not be cowed down by the evil designs of the Congress (I) and some other elements, he thundered obviously meaning the TRS and other separatist outfits.

He promised that under the TDP rule the local bodies would financially and operationally become more powerful and self- sufficient because he considered them as the main means to achieve his dream of establishing `Swarnandhrapradesh.' It was in this context that he described the current elections as significant and struck a note of optimism that the party was poised to make a clean sweep of the polls.

Earlier, he made the ZPTC and MPTC candidates take an oath on their dos and donts and warned them to live up to the expectations of the party leadership and voters. Among the other participants were the District Minister, Dr. N. Sivaprasad, the local MP (BJP), Dr. N. Venkataswamy, Mr. Chandalavada Krishnamurthy MLA, and the district party convener, Mr. G. V. Srinadha Reddy.

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