New Delhi, April 26
A strong view gaining ground in Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is that they should vote against the NDA government when the Opposition-sponsored motion on Gujarat is taken up in the Lok Sabha on March 30.
Mr Chandrababu Naidu is actively considering this strategy to highlight the secular credentials and ensure the prestige of his party, according to authoritative party sources here and in Hyderabad.
The Opposition’s motion under Rule 184 entails voting and Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed has admitted it because of the unabating communal tension in Gujarat since the Godhra carnage on February 27.
At the same time, a section of TDP MPs believe it might be advisable to abstain from voting so that an impression does not gain ground that the regional party is falling into the Congress trap of driving a wedge and dividing NDA’s disparate coalition partners. These MPs feel such a course of action will carry a clear message to the TDP supremo’s constituents in Andhra Pradesh.
It is argued by the TDP think tank that the TDP is not providing “a blanket but issue-based support” to the Atal Behari Vajpayee government from outside. They draw pointed attention to serious differences with the BJP on the Ayodhya tangle, efforts to saffronise the education system and the circular issued in Gujarat that government employees can take part in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.
The TDP maintains that it has not seen eye-to-eye on all the issues since the NDA government assumed office on Raisina Hill in New Delhi. On Gujarat, the TDP remains unbudging that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi must be removed for failing to contain the communal flare-up and restoring communal harmony.
Clearly, Mr Chandrababu Naidu cannot take one step forward and two steps backward in the wake of the TDP Politburo adopting two strong resolutions that Mr Modi must be sent packing as the Central issue in Gujarat is
preserving
and strengthening the country’s secular fabric. At the same time the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has declared that he does not want to create instability at the Centre. It is obvious he is not going to do anything which might even remotely destabilise the Vajpayee government as neither the TDP nor any other party in the political firmament wants a snap poll.It is in this context that BJP’s anxiety to have a coalition government in Uttar Pradesh headed by the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati before the April 30 censure motion in the Lok Sabha assumes significance. That would provide some cushion for the BJP-led NDA with the 13 BSP MPs voting with the Vajpayee government and against the Opposition censure motion.
At the same time, Mr Chandrababu Naidu wants to maintain cordial and friendly relations with the BJP. This is a clear indication that TDP’s outside support to the NDA will continue. In the unfolding drama the TDP chief has convened a meeting of his party’s Parliamentary Party in Hyderabad on Sunday to discuss the issue of voting against the NDA government on the Opposition’s censure motion.
