Vote to Cong will be a vote to the Naxals

Continuing his tirade against the Congress party for 'remaining silent' over the murders of Telugu Desam and BJP leaders by PWG Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh, TDP supremo and caretaker chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that a vote for Congress would be "a vote to the Naxals".

He was speaking to reporters on arrival at the helipad in the Nehru Municipal High School grounds, a few hours before kicking off the first leg of his election campaign from this famous temple town.

Naidu expressed confidence that the NDA, headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the centre and the TDP in the state, would come back to power.

The TDP leader, who again raised the foreign origin issue of AICC president Sonia Gandhi, said she had chosen to go on road tours and making brief public speeches in her statewide tour, "due to lack of command over language and subjects".

Naidu also said that Sonia Gandhi was "utterly confused" over the issues of tackling Naxalism and the state's water dispute with the Congress-ruled Karnataka. Later, he offered prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala. He spent about 20 minutes in the temple.