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TDP threatens to pull out if BJP makes any anti-minority move

The Telugu Desam Party has threatened to withdraw support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre if it takes any steps against the minorities.

The announcement, made by TDP general secretary R Ramachandraiah, comes close on the heels of the United Front meeting in Hyderabad on Monday, where Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu drew flak for betraying the state and the minorities.

Reiterating that the TDP's support to the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre was conditional and issue-based, Ramachandraiah said, ''The TDP is a secular party, and would not hesitate to withdraw support to the BJP-led government, if the latter adopted any policy that would affect the minorities. In the present circumstances, the TDP has no alternative but to support the BJP in order to keep the Congress from coming to power through the back door.''

He said the United Front appeared predetermined to support the Congress, which the TDP considered its main opponent. The outcome of the recent Lok Sabha poll had shown that the UF was not a viable entity and it was rejected by the people, he added.

Refuting the allegation aired by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and UF chairman H D Deve Gowda that Naidu was an 'opportunist', Ramachandraiah said the TDP was committed to secularism. If Yadav had ensured good governance in Uttar Pradesh during his tenure as chief minister, the BJP would not not have been in the present position, he charged.

He claimed that as long as TDP president Naidu was the UF convener, the UF had remained united. Soon after his resignation, differences among various UF partners had come to the fore, he added.

UNI

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