M A I N   N E W S

‘Single-party rule days over’
From Jatinder Sharma

MEHAM, Feb 17 — Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh, has said the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and his Telugu Desam Party will work together to strengthen the federal spirit in the country.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister was in Haryana today to canvass for the INLD and BJP candidates as was done by his father-in-law, the late NTR in 1987. Describing the INLD and the TDP as traditional friends, he recalled that the two parties were common in defeating the Congress.

Stressing more cooperation among the regional parties, Mr Naidu said the days of singe-party rule were over. He also pleaded for the abolition of Article 356 of the Constitution.

Mr Naidu, accompanied by Haryana Chief Minister and INLD chief, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, addressed election rallies at Bahadurgarh, Gohana, Meham, Dadri, Uklana and Kaithal. He said the Congress was losing every where as it had lost touch with the masses.

Addressing newsmen at Bahadurgarh, Mr Naidu said he would request the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and take up the issue of SYL canal with him. “I will also talk to Mr Parkash Singh Badal regarding the issue,” he said.

Mr Naidu said his campaigning for the INLD was the continuation of the NTR’s legacy. The founder of the TDP, he said, had vigorously campaigned for Mr Devi Lal in 1987.

He said that anti-Congressism of which Mr Devi Lal and the late NTR were main exponents, was not a hollow instrument of political convenience. It was an embodiment of an “alternative political value system,” he said.

The regional parties, he said, had made unique and district contribution to the national politics. The late NTR, Mr Devi Lal, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Mr Karunanidhi etc, had concrete ideas and programmes that made significant difference to the lives of the farmers, the poor and the weaker sections.

“Why farmers are still suffering for lack of proper mechanism to ensure remunerative prices of farm produce,” he asked?