Chiru accuses Naidu of ‘covert' operation

HYDERABAD: Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi on Wednesday spewed fire at TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu and accused him of sending ‘coverts' into his party in a bid to scuttle his political rise.
The coverts who were deployed to monitor the functioning of Praja Rajyam tracked all his movements from day one, Mr Chiranjeevi said without actually naming Mr. Naidu while inaugurating the State committee meeting of the party here.
Tension at meeting
The meeting was marked by tension outside the venue as activists of Praja Telangana Samiti, a breakaway group of Praja Rajyam, tried to storm inside demanding that Mr Chiranjeevi take a pro-Telangana stand when he meets the Srikrishna Committee here on Thursday. This led to a clash but the group was chased away by security men and supporters of the Praja Rajyam president.
Mr. Chiranjeevi trained his guns on Mr. Naidu for trying everything in his bag of tricks to marginalise the Praja Rajyam. The TDP was a source of mental harassment to him by getting articles published in a newspaper saying every one was leaving the Praja Rajyam and that the party would be merged with the Congress.
‘Mistaken notion'
Emphasising that the real cadre was still in the party, he said only the coverts, politically unemployed people and those who had joined the party with selfish motives to corner power had left after slinging mud on him. The doors were still open to people who wanted to quit.
Mr. Chiranjeevi said the TDP was nursing the mistaken notion that it had lost the 2009 elections due to the split in the anti-Congress vote by the Praja Rajyam. This was not true as former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had himself said that the Congress lost 13 per cent of its vote to the Praja Rajyam and six per cent to the TDP.
He expressed a strong resolve to take the Praja Rajyam to a high and said all parties that set up obstacles to it would be decimated in the process. He would tour Telangana alone without even being accompanied by security persons, he said.
The PR chief said he took the stand to oppose separate Telangana at the cost of his film career since most of his income in the industry was from the region. Former Rajya Sabha member C. Ramachandraiah said Mr. Naidu ran a campaign in the media that the Praja Rajyam would merge with the Congress.

source:the hindu