Naidu to approach Centre on Y S Rajashekhar Reddy’s ‘Satyam route of corruption’

After last week’s unruly scenes in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, a battery of state Opposition leaders, led by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, arrived in New Delhi armed with thick bound volumes containing allegations against Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy for distribution to the media. Naidu began his tirade against his successor in a crowded press conference where an audio-visual presentation was arranged as an expose on the “Raja of corruption”. Eventually, a technical snag left the presentation bereft of its visual element and only a loud commentary remained to go through the alleged corporate scams involving YSR and his family.

“If Satyam is the largest corporate scam in the country, the acts of the CM make his’ the largest political scam. Ramajingam Raju has confessed to his misdeeds and gone to jail and now it is the turn of the CM to do so,” Naidu said. After the press meet, Naidu said he and leaders of the TDP, TRS, CPI, CPI(M) will meet the President and the Prime Minister to “expose the manner in which the CM has floated front companies with jet speed and violated a host of Central laws”.

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Samajwadi Party deals Kalam trump card

To give its political decision of supporting the UPA the stamp of “national-interest” legitimacy, the Samajwadi Party today armed itself with a ringing endorsement of the Indo-US nuclear deal from former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

The SP’s Kalam announcement came hours after it got its allies in the UNPA to climb down from their strident opposition to the deal to saying they were ready for a “national debate.”

While these allies — TDP, INLD, AGP and the Jharkhand Vikas Party — stay opposed to the deal, they watched in awkward silence as SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said: “I can assure you that the UNPA will not take any step that will go against the national interest. The UNPA will also not do anything that will strengthen the communal forces (BJP) in the country.”

All the UNPA members, except the SP, have been associated with the NDA and all supported Kalam for a second term as President as well.

When Kalam had approved the deal, the BJP had distanced itself calling it his “personal opinion.”

“We had gone to seek the advice of former President Abdul Kalam, who is also a respected scientist, on the clarifications to our apprehensions provided by the PMO yesterday,” said Mulayam after his meeting with Kalam.

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