Silent revolution in AP: Congress

Calling its victory march in Andhra Pradesh assembly election a "silent revolution," the Congress on Tuesday said it reflected common man's anger against the "anti-poor" policies of the Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party government.

"It is very clear that Andhra Pradesh is witnessing a silent revolution to dislodge the TDP government. Common man is vexed with its misrule and wants a change," senior Congress leader in the state, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, said.

Reddy is widely seen as Congress' chief ministerial candidate.

Asked about the raging Telangana statehood issue, he said: "The statehood demand has come up because of the wrong
policies of the TDP government and a total neglect of backward regions."

Reddy said his party government would strive to resolve the issue in co-operation with its ally, the Telangana Rashtra
Samithi.

Ducking questions over who will become the chief minister in the event of the Congress securing a majority, Reddy said: "Our party legislators are clever enough to choose their leader with the blessings of the high command."     

In Delhi, senior party general secretary Ambika Soni told reporters that the TDP's humiliating defeat in Andhra Pradesh was the result of the National Democratic Alliance fighting the polls on the issue of individuals.

The result reflected the voters' rejection of the NDA's prime ministerial candidate, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The TDP lost because of its anti-people policies and people preferred the all-round development and empowerment of women promised by the Congress. With the TDP's trouncing, the NDA has lost its moral right to govern, she added.

She asserted that a Congress-led secular alliance would form the government at the Centre after the results of the general elections were known on May 13.

She, however, ducked the question on whether party chief Sonia Gandhi would be the prime ministerial candidate of the alliance. "We will cross the bridge when we come to it," she said.

She declined to divulge what transpired in Tuesday's meeting between Gandhi and Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran Harkishen Singh Surjeet.

She thanked the people of AP for extending the overwhelming support to the Congress, which has got an absolute majority on its own.