Date:10/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/10/stories/2004051005200600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Writing on the wall is clear for Naidu: YSR

By W. Chandrakanth

HYDERABAD, MAY 9. The Congress leader and contender for the Chief Minister's post, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has dismissed the claim of the TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, that the ruling party would return to power as "pep talk to boost the morale of the TDP cadre."

"The writing on the wall is clear for Mr. Naidu. He is losing the elections by a huge margin," he said in a telephonic interview to The Hindu from New Delhi where he was camping today.

Dr. Reddy vehemently strongly refuted the claims of the TDP chief that the ruling party would romp home with a comfortable margin. He said he was confident of success for the Congress this time because of several factors. "Apart from the anti-incumbency wave, there is also the fatigue factor — the Babu-fatigue I mean. People just want this rule to go." The Congress leader said he had promised a people-friendly governance and a throwback to Indira Gandhi's era of "care and concern'' for the poor and the downtrodden.

He disagreed with the views of a section of his own party men who claim that the Congress would manage to scrape through. He challenged those who argue in favour of the TDP to prove how any party could come back to power when youth, farmers, women, employees and the students nurture a desire to throw it out of power.

The "omissions and commissions'' of the TDP rule were too many to list and the scandals and scams that had erupted in the recent times too big for people to forget, he added. To rely upon the vote bank of the women was also futile for the ruling party as the Congress with the help of Left parties had successfully demolished that myth by undertaking an intense campaign in recent times. Predicting two-thirds majority for the Congress alone, he said, "We are bound to cross the 220-mark comfortably, make no mistake about it."