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TDP must join govt at Centre: Dattatreya

Union Minister of State for Urban Development and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bandaru Dattatreya today urged the Telugu Desam Party to respect the verdict in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in which the two parties had a seat-sharing arrangement and join the new National Democratic Alliance government to be formed at the Centre.

Addressing a media conference in Hyderabad, he said since the TDP had campaigned on the platform of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu as chief minister in Andhra Pradesh, it would be in the fitness of things for the TDP to join the government at the Centre.

Earlier, asked if his party would join the Vajpayee government, Chandrababu Naidu said, ''At present, I am concentrating on the results. A decision has to be taken by the party leadership.''

Union Home Minister L K Advani has also said that it would be in the interests of stability of the new regime at the Centre for the TDP, which significantly is the second largest constituent of the BJP-led front, to join the government. Asked whether his party had won any assurances from TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu on this matter, Advani answered in the negative, and added that he personally hoped that the Andhra party would see his point.

Dattatreya said that although there were no doubts about the anti-Congress credentials of the TDP, outside support to the government as was being done now would be a cause for suspicion which the Congress could take advantage of.

He said that although the Congress did not deserve the 90-100 seats it had got, he welcomed a strong opposition and hoped that it would play the role of a constructive opposition.

Dattatreya said that his party would play the role of 'friendly' opposition party in the state.

UNI

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