Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu had confided in President A P J Abdul Kalam early last month that he would be dissolving the state assembly and calling for fresh elections ahead of schedule, a senior Union home ministry official told rediff.com on Friday.
Quoting from an Intelligence Bureau report, the official said Naidu had confided in the President because of his close links with Kalam. Naidu had been instrumental in convincing Kalam to contest the presidential election last year as the National Democratic Alliance candidate.
According to the official, the TDP chief told the President of his plans when Kalam visited Hyderabad on October 3. The President had ignored protocol to call on Naidu at his residence and inquire about his well-being following the attack on his motorcade by Naxalites two days earlier. "It was then that Naidu told the President," the official said.
The same day, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani called on Naidu at his Jubilee Hills residence to inquire about his health. Naidu told Advani too about his plan. The latter reportedly tried to dissuade him, saying it would be better to hold the elections along with the Lok Sabha polls next year. But Naidu's mind was made up.
Naidu also informed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the official said.
Significantly, Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu told a television channel on Friday that while the BJP knew of the chief minister's inclination to call for early elections, it had left the decision to him.
The TDP chief is apparently banking on the developmental work done by his government so far and the sympathy generated for him by the Naxalite assassination attempt. He is also taking a calculated risk by wooing the people of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh, which account for two-thirds of the state's electorate, and opposing the move for a separate Telangana state.
Naidu's move has certainly caught the opposition Congress on the wrong foot, the official said. A Congress source told rediff.com that state unit chief D Srinivas and Congress Legislature Party chief Y S Rajasekhar Reddy met party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday to apprise her of the situation.
They told Gandhi that a 'state of panic' prevails within the state Congress because the party has not been able to thrash out a single issue over the last few years.
On Friday, chief Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said senior leaders, including Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Ambika Soni, Motilal Vora, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Ahmed Patel met to formulate the election strategy for Andhra Pradesh.