Naidu told newspersons here on Tuesday that there was no intention of his party to topple the government in near future. "We have accepted the mandate in the State and preferred to sit in the Opposition", he pointed out.

He denied that senior party leader and Union Home Minister L K Advani held talks with NCP leader Sharad Pawar to form a non-Congress government in Maharashtra. "This rumour was deliberately spread by our rivals to defame us", he said. He dismissed speculation that the Agriculture and Labour portfolios were kept by PM Atal Behari Vajpayee for NCP leaders Pawar and P A Sangma.

Naidu sought a nationwide debate on conversions. He said representatives of all parties and religious heads of different religions should be invited for the debate. He also demanded the government scrutinise funds from foreign countries and check utilisation by various organisations.

On the Congress demand for the deletion of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's name from the Bofors chargesheet, he ruled out any intervention in the matter.

The CBI enquiry has taken the Bofors case to its logical end, he said, observing there was no intention to defame any individual while filing the chargesheet. He said the BJP has no immediate plan to initiate a bill debarring persons of foreign origin from occupying high office. Since the elections to the three top offices in the country President, Prime Minister and Vice-President are not imminent, the coalition government will instead accord top priority to issues like electoral reforms and women's reservation bill.