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Congress capable of taking on Telugu Desam by its horns: Vijayabhaskara Reddy

Congress Working Committee member and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister K Vijayabhaskara Reddy has said his party will return to power because of its past record of providing a stable government.

Claiming that the faction-ridden state unit was now united, he said, ''The Congress is capable of taking on the ruling Telugu Desam Party by its horns.''

Regarding the United Front government, the CWC member said, ''The nation could not be left with the curse of facing another UF-like coalition.'' Reddy said he had been opposed to extending ''unconditional support to the UF'' right from the beginning. ''With a weak government, it landed the country in such a mess,'' he said.

He rejected the charge that the Congress was responsible for the mid-term poll by withdrawing its support to the UF government.

Regarding Sonia Gandhi's decision to campaign for the party, he said ,''There is new-found euphoria everywhere, particularly in the cadre. With the announcement of her visit to Hyderabad, every village is seeking facility to reach the capital.''

He said late prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi were household names and that the poor still consider them as their saviours.

Asked if she would be the next prime minister or party president, Reddy said it was for her to decide. The party has accepted her as its leader.

Rejecting Communist Party of India general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet view that the Congress's secular credentials were doubtful, he said, ''The CPI-M leader had never been reasonable. I am not able to make out what he is trying to say. If the Congress is not secular, which party in the country is?''

Every party, including the CPI-M, were partners with the BJP in one coalition or the other. In the V P Singh government, they found ''themselves as strange bedfellows. Having enjoyed such a strange honeymoon, Surjeet cannot find fault with the Congress which never had any truck with that party any time in the past or present.

''Even today, Surjeet must know that his own prime minister is backed by the BJP's ally in Jalandhar.''

In Andhra Pradesh, the CPI-M was a partner with the BJP, the Telugu Desam and the Communist Party of India in fighting the Congress in 1984, 1985 and 1989, both in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

''It is therefore for the people to know whose secular credentials are worthy,'' Reddy said.

Referring to the ruling Telugu Desam in the state, he said the TDP had not been able to fulfil any of its election promises like supply of rice at Rs 2 per kg. Prohibition was withdrawn to help its partymen, particularly MLAs and ministers, to make money through clandestine, yet government backed operations.

UNI

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