Naidu quits, Congress CM by Wednesday
Hyderabad:
After being totally routed in the Assembly elections,
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu submitted
his resignation to State Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala
here on Tuesday. Naidu met the Governor at Raj Bhavan at
1.30 p.m. to submit his resignation, official sources said.
Congress, which had 91 seats in the dissolved House, has
already secured over 200 Assembly seats in the 294-member
strong House.
Meanwhile,
the Congress Legislature Party in Andhra Pradesh will be
meeting on Wednesday to elect its leader with Dr YS Rajasekhar
Reddy tipped to be the next Chief Minister of the state.
Senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad and Shivraj Patil
would leave for Hyderabad on Tuesday evening to supervise
the crucial meeting, party sources said. The Congress has
aligned with TRS and Left parties for the first time in
the state. Though the Congress TRS tie-up appears to be
working well in Telengana, indications of overwhelming support
to Congress from coastal Andhra gives the party a clear
edge to form the government on its own.
Anti-incumbency spelt Naidu's doom: Reddy
(Go
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Hyderabad/New
Delhi: Crediting the commonman in Andhra Pradesh for
the Congress Party's landslide victory over the Telugu Desam
Party (TDP) in the state Assembly polls, chief ministerial
aspirant and Congress chief in Andhra Pradesh, Rajshekhar
Reddy today said that the anti-incumbency factor had spelt
doom for outgoing Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu almost
decade-long rule. Addressing a press conference a short
while after the Congress-led combine in Andhra Pradesh secured
a two-thirds majority, winning 214 seats in the 294-member
state assembly, Reddy said that he was humble enough to
recognize that it was a " decisive victory of the common
man in the state." In a telling broadside against the Naidu
regime, Reddy said that while the anti-incumbency factor
had had an impact on the results, the people of the state
had through votes expressed their confidence not only in
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, but also in the Congress.
This decisive victory, he added had sent a message across
to Naidu that his policy of doling out the goodies for only
five per cent of the state's population was a draconian
mistake. He was particularly severe on the outgoing TDP's
agricultural policy that had led to a high incidence of
suicides among farmers and to drought-like conditions in
the agricultural belt, particularly in the Telangana region.
"We stand committed to their (the peoples') development,
to mitigate their sufferings. Mr. Naidu only made five percent
of the population richer. We raised the farmers' issue in
the assembly, and Naidu ignored it," Reddy said. "This is
a clear indication that the people have rejected them (the
BJP) and that a Congress-led government at the center is
inevitable. We will form a government," senior Congress
leader Ahmed Patel told reporters in New Delhi. The Congress
party returns to power with a whopping gain of over 120
seats for the combine. The TDP-BJP alliance managed to win
only 50 seats, while other parties bagged 30.
The tally is : INC -188 TDP - 46 TRS - 27 IND - 09
CPM - 08 CPI - 06 NIM - 04 BJP - 02
Meanwhile,
Naidu today accepted defeat and tendered his resignation
to Andhra Pradesh Governor Surjit Singh Barnala. The Congress
Legislature Party is meeting here tomorrow to elect the
Chief Minister, who in all probability would be Reddy. The
BJP admitted that the results in Andhra Pradesh were a setback
and also admitted that the results were worse than expected.
"The result was expected, but what we didn't realize that
the scale of defeat would be such. The two factors that
led to the defeat was that the TDP had been in power for
nine years and also the emotive issue of Telengana hurt
us," said BJP leader Arun Jaitley. The Congress-led alliance
surged ahead across the state, banking on a string of populist
promises. The coalition has gained in all the three regions
of Rayalseema, coastal Andhra and Telangana. While the TDP
in Rayalseema managed to put up a semblance of a fight,
it suffered huge losses in the other two regions. The fledgling
TRS, facing assembly elections for the first time in alliance
with the Congress, surged ahead in Karimnagar, Medak, Warangal
and Nizamabad. The Opposition alliance dealt stunning blows
to senior TDP leaders, but Naidu managed to win his seat
in Kuppam. Several ministers, including V Shobhanadreshwar
Rao, D Sivarama Raju, N Narasimha Rao, Mutyam Reddy, Babu
Mohan and B Gopalakrishna Reddy were trounced in the anti-incumbency
wave. The Congress party got its arithmetic right this time
round, entering into an alliance with the separatist Telangana
Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Left parties. The combine surged
on the sentiment in favour of a separate Telangana state
and anger amongst farmers due to of lack of water for irrigation.
The Congress also made matters difficult for the TDP by
promising free power.
TRS threatens agitation if Cong backtracks
on Telangana (Go
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Hyderabad:
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti an ally of the Congress
in Andhra Pradesh, has threatened to launch an agitation
if Congress backtracks on the promise of setting up a separate
Telengana state. "We are hopeful that the Congress will
fulfill its promise and form a separate Telangana state,"
TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao said. TRS, which won 26 assembly
seats, said it would not hesitate to launch an agitation
if the demand for separate Telengana state was not fulfiled.
"We will fight democratically for the formation of Telengana
state. And if we don't get our due, we will launch intense
agitation. We are not going to sit quietly... we will trouble
the (state) government," he said. Congress on its own has
won 184 seats in the 294-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly
and as such is not dependent on TRS for formation of the
government but its leaders in New Delhi insist that they
would like to have TRS on board in the new government. They
have however remained non-commital on the formation of separate
Telangana state till now.
Surjeet favours Cong-led coalition (Go
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New
Delhi: The General Secretary of CPI (M), Harkishan Singh
Surjeet, on Tuesday told reporters that the Andhra assembly
results declared today would be repeated throughout the
country. "You have seen the results of Andhra. In the rest
of the country, this trend will follow. The main issue in
this election has been to defeat the BJP. And the people
have exactly done that. The people do not want the unity
and secular fabric of this country to be destroyed," he
said. He also added that the victory in Andhra is in retrospect
a victory of secularism. Surjeet had a discussion with Congress
president Sonia Gandhi. Talking about that meeting, he said:
"We exchanged views and discussed the present situation
and what to do in this scenario." When asked whether the
contentious issue of Sonia's foreign origin might become
a stumbling block for government formation, the CPI (M)
general secretary admitted that the issue might be a problem,
but it would be suitably tackled. "Congress is the largest
party. It has an important role. I am confident that all
the coalition partners would discuss the issues and solve
it," he added. Commenting on the formation of the Third
Front, he said: "There is no need for a Third Front. The
present non-NDA secular alternative is sufficient."
Sensex plummets on AP results, fear of
hung Parliament (Go
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Mumbai:
As the Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls results started
coming in, stock markets crashed by over 160 points. The
Congress appeared to be storming to power in the state with
a visible landslide victory looming large. In the 294-member
strong state assembly, the Congress appeared to be crossing
the 200-mark. Experts said that the results gave strong
signals indicating a hung Parliament, and uncertainty as
to which government would take over at the Centre. If the
Congress repeats its performance in the Lok Sabha too, it
appears there would be a change in government in New Delhi.
The 30-issue Bombay share index - Sensex was down over 160
points within minutes of the commencement of trading and
was quoted at 5390 at about 10:25 am, a slide of about three
per cent over Monday's closing.
