HYDERABAD, Feb 8: If the Congress bags a majority of seats from the State and forms a government at the Centre, it would not hesitate to dismiss Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu from power, senior Congress leader and former PCC president Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said here on Saturday. Addressing a `Meet-the-Press' programme, he said besides dismissing the Telugu Desam Party Government, a CBI inquiry would also be ordered to probe the misdeeds of Chandrababu Naidu and his ministerial colleagues.Justifying this stand, Reddy said dismissing State governments when the ruling parties failed to secure the people's mandate was an accepted convention. He recalled that a number of Congress-led State governments were dismissed by the Morarji Desai Government in 1977. He declared that Sonia Gandhi would be the party's prime ministerial candidate. ``Though she has not formally accepted the offer made by Congress president Sitaram Kesri, I hope she would soon concede our appeals,'' he said.
Reddy was confident aboutthe party winning 35 Lok Sabha seats from the State. He asserted that only the Congress would be able to provide a stable and secular government. Explaining the reasons for the Congress withdrawing support to the Gujral Government, the Rayalaseema strongman said the intransigent attitude of UF convener Naidu had forced mid-term elections on the country.
``The Cong had demanded the removal of DMK ministers from the Government. At one stage even the DMK ministers were ready to quit,'' he reminded.
It was solely because of Naidu, who insisted that the DMK ministers should continue, that the Congress was left with no option but to withdraw support.''
The former PCC president maintained that except the Congress almost all political parties had received the support of the ``Hindutva combine'' to form governments. Former prime ministers Morarji Desai and V P Singh had received the support of the Jan Sangh and the BJP, respectively.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
