Cracks in NDA; BJP flays Naidu's remarks

Anti-incumbency in AP, TN cost us dear: BJP

For seven years, they shared a squabble-free relationship. But today, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not take it any more and reacting to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) charges that the Gujarat riots led to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ""and the TDP's "" defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, said that was not the case.

This is the first time a difference of opinion between the BJP and the TDP has been allowed to reach a point of public disagreement.

In an interview, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu had said yesterday the TDP suffered because of its association with the BJP and had to pay the price for the Gujarat violence.

This had a negative effect on last year's Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh when the TDP lost power after two terms and also affected the Lok Sabha poll outcome.

However, BJP vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu said he rejected this assessment. "We do not agree with that view point. Some people in our party are of the opinion that the anti-incumbency factor in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh affected our performance in the Lok Sabha elections," Naidu told reporters here when asked about Chandrababu Naidu's remarks.

The BJP leader said if Gujarat violence had been an issue, the party would not have done well in states like Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

"We do not agree with that assessment. We believe that in the last Lok Sabha polls, local issues influenced people's minds," Venkaiah Naidu said.

The BJP vice-president said while he was not aware of the "language and context" in which the TDP chief had made the said remarks, "the TDP was never part of the NDA and it had always extended outside support to the alliance for six years".

"The state and the country benefited from that. It was in the interests of the state and we were able to provide a stable government at the Centre but our viewpoints are different and we are different political parties," he said.

He, however, said the BJP had "no regrets" about its ties with the TDP.

At the official briefing, BJP General Secretary VK Malhotra sought to play down the TDP chief's remarks. It was not possible to assess who lost and who gained from various political incidents during the rule of the NDA, including Gujarat, Malhotra said.