Date:13/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071354800600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Naidu urged to visit Delhi

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

TDP to coordinate with Left in opposing nuclear agreement

UPA, Bush administration should leave issue to their successors, says TDP chief
Fears Congress may resort to horse-trading to win the vote of confidence

SATHUPALLI ( Khammam dist): The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has decided to work in coordination with the Left parties in opposing the Indo-American civilian nuclear agreement.

A meeting of the TDP Polit Bureau held here on Saturday urged party president N. Chandrababu Naidu to take time off from his ongoing “Mee Kosam” yatra and visit New Delhi again to coordinate with the United National Progressive Alliance constituents and the Left parties in seeing that the nuclear deal was not clinched.

Briefing news persons later, Mr. Naidu said the nuclear deal lacked sanctity. He said that if it was genuinely in the interests of the nation, there was no harm in deferring it by a few months. The Manmohan Singh government as well as the Bush administration were on their way out and it was best left to their successors to handle the issue.

Mr. Naidu said he apprehended that the Congress leadership might resort to horse trading to win the confidence vote in Parliament. It would not hesitate even to bribe political parties for the sake of the deal. He said that the Congress government had failed to take the Left parties, which supported it for so long, into confidence on the issue. It was not introduced in Parliament and the country was kept in the dark.

3-member panel

The Polit Bureau appointed a three-member committee to monitor the party’s campaign on peasant-related issues. It will consist of Telugu Rythu president Ch. Muthyam Reddy, K. E. Krishnamurthy and Ummareddi Venkateswarlu. The committee will also deal with issues of SEZs and corruption in execution of irrigation projects.