Cong can stoop to any low to stay in power: TDP

The WikiLeaks' latest expose on the cash-for-vote row during the United Progressive Alliance-1 government's trust vote in July 2008 only re-established that Congress would "stoop to any low" to stay in power, Telugu Desam Party alleged on Friday.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad late on Friday evening, TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu deplored Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's defence in this regard. "This is highly abhorring that the Prime Minister sought to defend Congress' dubious action by claiming the people voted them back to power in 2009. Congress will stoop to any low by burying moral values for the sake of power."

The TDP chief charged Congress had tried to engineer a split in the Bharatiya Janata Party and Akali Dal to save the Prime Minister's position.

"Two of our TDP MPs were also lured with inducements to vote in favour of the UPA-1 government. While Adikesavulu Naidu was made TTD chairman, Manda Jagannadham was given a Lok Sabha ticket again," Naidu said.

He claimed the situation has became so bad that the Supreme Court was forced to monitor governance on a daily basis due to the "collapse" of systems.

The prime minister owning responsibility for the illegal appointment of P J Thomas as the central vigilance commissioner and "admitting his helplessness" in curbing corruption due to "compulsions of coalition politics" only exposed his inefficiency to rule the country, Naidu charged.

He also flayed Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's claim that he was neither confirming nor denying the WikiLeaks' revelations.