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BJP sees a conspiracy to malign Jayalalitha

Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu today alleged that political vendetta was going on in Tamil Nadu against All India Anna DMK chief J Jayalalitha and said the Centre would not be a party to that.

Addressing a press conference in Madras, he said the Centre was within its rights to issue the notification transferring corruption cases against Jayalalitha and others from the special judges to other courts under Section 3(i) and 4(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Supreme Court itself had been intimated about the Centre's powers in this regard, he added.

Answering questions on the Centre "succumbing" to pressures from Jayalalitha to survive in power, Naidu said there was no question of the prime minister or anybody else at the Centre succumbing to pressures from anyone.

He denied that the notification was issued to delay the hearing in the cases.

Naidu accused the Tamil Nadu government of being soft towards fundamentalist elements in the state.

Even after the Coimbatore serial blasts in February last year, which had claimed 62 lives, fundamentalists could strike at ease at BJP leaders like Dr Sreedhar of Tiruchirapalli, he charged. Some kingpins in that murder were still at large, he added.

A fundamentalist from Tamil Nadu arrested in Rajahmundhry in Andhra Pradesh had disclosed to the police about a conspiracy to eliminate important BJP leaders, including Home Minister L K Advani, he claimed.

On Haryana Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala's threat to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government, Naidu expressed confidence that Chautala would not fall a victim to the Congress's machinations in Haryana.

Chautala himself had earlier been a victim of the Congress's manipulations, he added.

UNI

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