Date:23/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/23/stories/2008082350450100.htm

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Naidu to meet Karat in New Delhi

Special Correspondent

TDP chief receives special invitation from CPI (M) general secretary

Chandrababu Naidu may meet Deve Gowda
Focus on how to strengthen third alternative

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam president and United National Progressive Alliance convenor N. Chandrababu Naidu is leaving for New Delhi on Saturday to meet CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat.

TDP sources said Mr. Naidu is proceeding to Delhi on a specific invitation from Mr. Karat, to discuss political developments and ways of taking forward the efforts to strengthen the proposed third alternative.

Mayawati’s move

Mr. Karat’s invitation has come a day after CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan and he met Janata Dal (Secular) president H. D. Deve Gowda in Delhi. The meeting discussed the implication of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s announcement that her Bahujan Samaj Party would contest all the Lok Sabha seats in the State.

After meeting Mr. Karat, Mr. Naidu may meet Mr. Gowda and talk on telephone with Ms. Mayawati in Lucknow and Mr. Bardhan, who is in Kerala for a party meeting.

Meanwhile Mr. Naidu has decided to bring to the notice of the Chief Election Commissioner, the large scale “irregularities” in the ongoing exercise of updating the voters list in Andhra Pradesh.

Teleconference

He took the decision after the party leaders of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies complained to him in a teleconference on Friday morning.