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The Congress has launched a no-holds-barred effort to wean away the Telugu Desam Party from the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, encouraged by the party's absence at the NDA rally in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
"We have said that this government must resign over the serious tehelka.com charges which triggered the exit of the Trinamul Congress from the BJP-led NDA. We would welcome it if the TDP too follows suit like the Trinamul Congress. This would enlarge the secular line-up against the formation of communal forces led by the BJP," Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy pointed out to rediff.com.
Reddy said there was considerable disenchantment even among NDA allies about the manner in which the BJP leaders had sought to "sweep the tehelka charges under the carpet".
"The very fact that even Sangh Parivar constituents in the NDA like the Shiv Sena and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have lashed out against the (alleged ) role of Brajesh Mishra and N K Singh pertaining to the tehelka scandal shows that there is more to the matter than meets the eye. We, on our part, have resolved to expose the Vajpayee Government's misdeeds among the people," Reddy said.
According to the Congress grapevine, well-entrenched at the All-India Congress Congress headquarters here, feelers are being sent to TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu that if his party left the NDA, like the Trinamul, his political fortunes would be on the upswing.
With the Congress high command now even agreeable to the formation of a 'secular' government at the Centre comprising various parties in place of the Vajpayee Government, Naidu is being told that he could even become the prime minister if the TDP quit the NDA.
However, the TDP chief, it seems, has not yet taken the bait.
TDP parliamentary party leader Kinjarapu Yerran Naidu denied there was any possibility of the TDP leaving the NDA.
"If you are asking why our party stayed away from the NDA rally in Hyderabad, we also abstained from the NDA rally in Delhi recently. Our party leadership had taken the decision to stay away from these rallies so there is no element of surprise," Yerran Naidu pointed out.
"The TDP supports the NDA Government from outside. Ours is an independent party having a secular outlook. We have raised our voice when we felt aggrieved on the Ayodhya and minorities issues," he said.
He also laughed away the suggestion that the TDP would cross over to the Opposition camp if it felt that the stakes were attractive enough.
"All this is hypothetical," he pointed out.
However, a former TDP Union minister, who is now an independent Rajya Sabha member, contended that the TDP chief would leave the NDA only if his personal stakes were assured.
" He (Naidu) cannot just cross over to the Opposition side just for the heck of it. But if he were promised the prime ministership in some kind of written assurance then maybe he could consider," the MP, who still maintains close links with the TDP leadership, stated.
He added that even if the TDP remained in the NDA, Naidu would boost his party's political stature by exerting pressure on the NDA as well as the Opposition.
Despite the lofty statements of BJP leaders pertaining to the government's innocence in the tehelka affair, the Vajpayee Government is worried.
A media report said that controversial PMO official N K Singh was leaving following the heat generated by the tehelka allegations.
The BJP office in Bombay confirmed that the NDA rally would not be held even though Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is visiting the city on April 8.
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