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Naidu keen on backing Third Front govt

Shireen in Hyderabad

Telugu Desam Party is 'exploring' the option of extending support to an alternative government if it is formed by a Third Front leader.

Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu began informal consultations with senior TDP leaders on Friday morning to chalk out the party's strategy on the political developments in Delhi.

Sources said Naidu has been seeking to pull the strings from behind the scenes in the last two or three days following the Samajwadi Party's rigid stand against a minority Congress government.

Naidu called Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday night and discussed with him the national political scenario and the issues concerning the formation of an alternative government at the Centre.

Naidu is understood to have told Mulayam that the TDP would consider supporting from outside a government formed by a non-Congress party from the Third Front.

Even while extending 'moral and political support' to the Bharatiya Janata Party after the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government on April 17, Naidu has been dropping hints that the TDP's relationship with the Sangh Parivar is over.

Naidu said on April 17 that "with the fall of the BJP government, the matter ends there since we were extending only issued-based and conditional support to them from outside".

On Thursday, TDP spokesman Dr Ummareddy Venkateswarlu told a Telugu television channel that the party "is not averse to the idea of supporting an alternative government formed by a constituent or leader of the Third Front since we are opposed to the formation of a Congress-led government".

He also pointed out that "the party chief (Naidu) has made it clear that there was no question of supporting the BJP hereafter".

Former minister and sitting TDP MLA Basheeruddin Babu Khan also claimed a day earlier that the chief minister had categorically told him that there would not be any truck with the BJP hereafter and that the TDP would not extend support even if the BJP makes a fresh bid to form a government at the Centre.

A senior TDP leader said that Naidu is worried over the Delhi developments. "With the assembly elections due in the state by the year-end, the chief minister fears that a Congress government at the Centre would prove hostile to the TDP's interests. Hence, he would like to have a friendly regime headed by a non-Congress leader. That is why, he has spoken to Mulayam on Thursday," one of the TDP general secretaries said.

"If Mulayam leads such a government, the TDP is willing to support him. This has been conveyed to Mulayam by Naidu," the TDP leader said.

In fact, Naidu has kept in touch with several leaders in Delhi, including Defence Minister George Fernandes, Janata Dal leader Ramvilas Paswan and Speaker Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi. He has also been in contact with BJP leaders, including general secretary and spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu, who hails from Andhra Pradesh.

"It is not that Chandrababu Naidu has distanced himself from us," says a state BJP leader.

Telugu Desam parliamentary party leader K Yerran Naidu has been interacting with the BJP on the developing political situation. This is clearly established by the fact that the TDP has given a letter of support to the BJP, which was among the letters handed over by Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani to President K R Narayanan earlier this week.

The BJP and TDP jointly organised a protest in the Lok Sabha against 'horse trading' by the Congress, leading to the disruption of proceedings on Wednesday.

The two parties also raked up the issue in the Rajya Sabha, leading to pandemonium on Thursday.

"Naidu is deliberately pursuing his own agenda. He is confusing everyone in Delhi. He is running with the hare (BJP) and hunting with the hound (the Third Front). He is also not very averse to a Congress-led government. He is keeping his options open but the local political considerations are forcing him to take a tough stand against the Congress," another TDP leader explained.

Meanwhile, former Union minister of state for health and TDP leader Renuka Choudhary has urged Naidu to support the Congress' bid to form an alternative government 'in the national interest'.

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