ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Crucial TDP meet may finalise strategy against Vajpayee govt

The Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party is meeting in Hyderabad today amidst indications that its members would be given a free hand to attack the Centre on certain issues in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament.

Top TDP sources said the party leadership has been toying with this idea for quite some time but a final shape would be given at today's meeting.

The TDP's support is crucial for the continuance of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre.

Sources said the TDP wanted to distance itself from the ruling coalition since assembly elections were round the corner. ''It did not want to incur the double anti-incumbency factor,'' they said.

The party is worried about the 12 per cent minority votes in the state which can tilt the balance in as many as 50 assembly constituencies.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who was in New Delhi yesterday to attend the National Development Council meeting, called for the establishment of an effective mechanism to stop anti-Christian attacks.

He had also asked the government to roll back the hike in prices of rice in the public distribution system for people above the poverty line saying that it was an attempt to penalise states which pursued the policy of food security to all its people.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report