Congress Lampoons Naidu's Bharata Desam Party Idea

Senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir today ridiculed the election of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as the TDP national party president.

Addressing the media at the CLP office on Saturday, Shabbir Ali said the TDP did not match the criteria of a national party.

To get recognised as a national party, a party needed to have presence in at least four states, and should have secured at least 6% of the total polled votes in an election. The TDP was no way closer to that criterion defined by the Election Commission. Further, the TDP had no potential to grow in other states, including Telangana.

Citing instances, he said the tha Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party could not do well in Uttarakhand. Similarly, the RJD had remained a non-entity in Jharkhand. Post-bifurcation, the regional parties believed that they could grow as national parties. However, they failed to register their presence in newly formed states.

"The TDP will be wiped out from Telangana in the 2019 elections. It will also lose its base in Andhra Pradesh due to its anti-people policies," Shabbir Ali said.

The Congress leader added that Naidu always tried to be larger than life, and had now proclaimed himself as the national president of the TDP. But people would remember him only as a person who had backstabbed TDP founder NTR, his widow Laxmi Parvathi, his son Harikrishna and other family members. He had cheated not only NTR's family members, but also his close friends and the common people in general, he added.

Shabbir Ali also faulted Naidu for stating that he had developed Hyderabad and brought international recognition to it. "Hyderabad has a history of 425 years, while Naidu ruled the state for only 9 years. When Naidu was born in 1950, Hyderabad was among the most developed cities in India. It had its own secretariat, assembly, railways, airport, industries and huge financial resources. The office from where Naidu functioned as the Chief Minister for nine years was also constructed before he was born. Centuries back Hyderabad was an established international market for diamonds, pearls and textiles, and it was famous for its beautiful buildings, lakes and gardens," he said, and advised the AP CM to be logical in his claims.

The Congress leader said that the Congress had added to the city's infrastructure by spending more than Rs one lakh crores. Naidu's regime in contrast had witnessed numerous suicides by farmers and severe agrarian crises. The Congress government, during its 2004-2014 rule, had provided free power, waiver of power bills, crop loan waivers, good MSP, subsidised seeds and fertilizers, and other facilities. And while Naidu had failed to generate a single megawatt of power through public sector companies, the Congress had ensured generation of 10,000 MW power through GENCO, Shabbir Ali said.

Irrigational facilities, which had remained neglected during the TDP's rule, were given a major boost during the Congress regime through the Jalayagnam scheme wherein several mega irrigation projects like Pranahita-Chevella were initiated. And while the TDP government had completely ruined the education sector, the Congress introduced schemes like fee reimbursement and scholarships while starting several universities and institutions, including an IIT and a IIIT. The IT sector too grew more than 10 times in terms of exports and jobs during the Congress regime.

Shabbir Ali advised Naidu to stop self-praise. Else, the people would teach him a fitting lesson in the next elections, he warned. (NSS)