Date:02/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/02/stories/2004050203350600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

CLP leadership: call to end bickering

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 1. Four senior Congress leaders — M. Baga Reddy, Palvai Govardhan Reddy, R. Surender Reddy and M. A. Aziz — today appealed to party men not to raise the issue of the leadership of the Congress Legislature Party till the election process was completed and results were declared. They said it was `unfortunate to see internal bickering' among Congressmen over the post of the Chief Minister at a time when the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, was striving hard to defeat the casteist and communal forces and bring back secular Governments at the Centre and in the State.

They said the party would maintain its `democratic tradition' of seeking the opinion of the newly elected MLAs and convey the same to the AICC president and she would pick the leader. "It is a known fact that the Chief Minister will be elected by the MLAs and the party president and hence it is not right on the part of he senior leaders to create confusion in the minds of the common man. This can severely impede the election process elsewhere".