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Naidu urges President to intervene

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president Nara Chandrababu Naidu has urged President K R Narayanan to use his 'pre-eminent constitutional and moral authority' to exhort all political parties, especially the Congress, to desist from engaging in activities that are likely to lower the stature of the country in the comity of nations and lead to political chaos and moral crisis.

In a letter to Narayanan, a copy of which was released to the media in Hyderabad yesterday, he bemoaned that "unscrupulous and scheming politicians have hijacked politics for their partisan, narrow and selfish ends".

Alleging that TDP rebel member of Parliament Satrucherla Vijayarama Raju had issued a statement in support of Congress president Sonia Gandhi 'under heavy inducement', Naidu said it was not an isolated case.

This was clear from media reports concerning AP Congress unit president Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, former chief minister K Vijayabhaskara Reddy and others who ''have been in touch with MPs from other parties to engineer defections'', he said.

Meanwhile, Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh have blamed Naidu 'for being in the habit of blaming the Congress for all his troubles' and said there was nothing sudden about Raju's decision.

Congress leaders P Upendra and K Rosaiah said Raju had made it clear that no Congressman had induced him to support Sonia's leadership.

''That Mr Raju had come to this conclusion was known to many for the last four or five days as Telugu newspapers had carried speculative stories about his likely move,'' they said.

UNI

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