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TDP decides not to play a 'negative role'

Shireen in Hyderabad

The Telugu Desam Party is adopting a wait-and-watch approach on the developments in Delhi following the collapse of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition.

The TDP, which had extended "issue-based support from outside" to the government and voted in favour of the confidence motion tabled by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is watching the developments very cautiously, with the Congress again at the centre of attempts to form an alternative government.

TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been pursuing a vigorously anti-Congress line in recent months, dubbing the party his 'enemy number 1'. Even on the day the government lost the trust vote, he blamed the Congress for not allowing the government to function effectively from day one and eventually pulling it down.

But on Sunday, Naidu changed his tune a bit and said that while he would not play any role in the developments in Delhi, his party would not play a negative role either by preventing the Congress from forming the government. "If they [the Congress] are ready, let them do so as they enjoy the support of 270 MPs," he remarked.

"The Telugu Desam Party has been pursuing anti-Congressism right since its birth. But we will play only a positive role, not a negative one," he said.

He, however, clarified that there is no question of supporting a Congress-led government.

Since the government's fall, the TDP chief is clearly seeking to distance himself from the BJP while keeping up his tirade against the Congress. Thus he hinted that henceforth that the TDP would chart its own course in the Lok Sabha.

Actually, the TDP is treating the fall of the government as a blessing in disguise that will help it to regain the confidence of the minorities (Muslims and Christians) which had moved away after it supported the BJP.

The TDP chief, who has been consulting senior politicians of his party, including Revenue Minister T Devender Goud and general secretary Lal Jan Basha, is understood to have told them that the TDP would not have a "working relationship" with the BJP anymore. He also ruled out an alliance with the BJP for the assembly election due by December 1999.

With the minorities (Muslims and Christians) constituting a sizeable chunk of voters in Telangana, Rayalaseema and south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Naidu hopes to live down his "pro-BJP" tilt by seeking to champion the cause of secularism.

To this end, efforts are on in the party to give an important role to former major industries minister Basheeruddin Babu Khan who had quit the Naidu Cabinet on March 29 last year in protest against the TDP's support to the BJP.

TDP sources, however, admit that the party is panicky after the fall of the central government. State Congress politicians have been on the offensive against Naidu in recent months, highlighting his various acts of omission and commission, his alleged corrupt deals and accumulation of property.

With the election hardly six months away, the Congress campaign has become more vitriolic. A senior TDP minister, who declined to be identified, said the party fears simultaneous polls to the assembly and the Lok Sabha.

The last time such simultaneous elections were held, in November 1989, the Congress swept the Lok Sabha seats and ousted the TDP, led by the late N T Rama Rao, from power. The Congress tally then was 39 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats and 180 out of 294 assembly seats.

Recently, Eenadu, a leading Telugu daily, quoting a survey conducted by a New Delhi-based agency, had predicted that the Congress would sweep the next Lok Sabha election in Andhra Pradesh bagging 35 to 38 seats.

The survey had also forecast that the TDP would retain power by securing 180 to 185 assembly seats while the Congress would get 75 to 85. "You can imagine the fate of the TDP if simultaneous polls are held," said the minister.

A TDP minority politician also felt things are not too good for the party. Congressmen will feel emboldened to launch more virulent attacks on Naidu, and a Congress-led or -backed government at the Centre will try to make things difficult for him. The minorities are also unlikely to return to the TDP fold soon, he said. Besides, the Left parties -- the Communist Party of India and the CPI (Marxist) -- are still angry with the TDP and reiterated at a rally at Vijayawada on April 17 that they would not have any truck with the party.

Naidu, thus, is feeling increasingly isolated in national politics. But he is not showing any sign of nervousness. Yet.

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