Date:19/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/19/stories/2005051909800400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

`Assembly right forum for debate'

Staff Reporter

Congress spokesman says factionalist charge by TDP against YSR only to malign him

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee official spokesman, G. Muddukrishnama Naidu, has said that a debate in the monsoon session of the Assembly will decide whether the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, or the TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, is a factionalist.

Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Mr. Muddukrishnama Naidu rejected the demand by the TDP to organise an open debate on the issue by the Lok Satta or the Andhra Pradesh Union of Journalists.

The Assembly was the right place for such a debate. The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition could have a face-to-face debate to decide who was a factionalist.

Ploy by TDP

The repeated charge that Dr. Reddy was a factionalist was only a ploy by the TDP to malign him.

He said even the 20 cases registered against the Chief Minister during the TDP regime were petty in nature and election-related.

Mr. Muddukrishnama Naidu said the `factionalist mindset' of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu was evident when he provoked his party cadres after the murder of the Penukonda MLA, Paritala Ravi.

Similarly, he had ensured that his senior party colleagues were present in Penukonda on the day of filing of nomination by Paritala Sunita only to create tension, he alleged.