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Naidu demands 'wages for good work' as crowd turns restive

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has urged the people to ''pay me the wages for my good work by voting the Telugu Desam Party'' in the Lok Sabha election.

Launching the TDP's election campaign at the tastefully done-up S V University stadium at Tirupati, Naidu urged the people not to waste their votes on the Congress. ''Remember how the votes given to Lakshmi Parvathi's N T Rama Rao-Telugu Desam were wasted in the last election?'' he said. ''Don't make the same mistake.''

Recalling his college days at the S V University, Naidu said, ''The people are responsible for the rapid strides I have made in national politics''.

The statements should not convey the impression that Naidu bubbled with confidence as the crowd heard in rapt attention.

In fact, he had a tough time handling the restive crowd.

As Naidu stood up to introduce the party's Chittoor and Tirupati candidates Ramakrishna Reddy and Dr Sivaprasad, the crowd turned impatient, disturbing the meeting.

Only after the chief minister made several appeals -- peppered with a threat that he would not address the gathering -- the crowd calmed down.

Naidu's joy, however, was shortlived.

As he set out to blast the Congress for pulling the rug from the United Front, many people, including women, stood up. They raised the increasing number of cotton growers's suicides and the crippling power shortage in the state.

Urging the people to be 'disciplined Telugu Desam soldiers', Naidu appealed them to take their seats. He said the Opposition was misleading the farmers.

As for the power situation, the chief minister said the state has to generate more power to meet the farm and industrial sectors's demands. He assured that the farmers that they would get power supply for nine hours.

Referring to the Opposition parties, he said, ''The Congress is in the habit of pulling down governments at the Centre, the BJP talks of the demolishing mosques. The BJP has no ideology and morals,'' he said.

He said many Congress leaders would have to go to ''jail if the Bofors papers were made public''.

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