With general elections less than a year away and several regional parties talking of joining hands to fight against the BJP, Chief Minister and TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu, who himself is leading the charge against the saffron party, has come out strongly in favour of coalition governments, reasoning that they have always performed better than governments with an absolute majority.
Citing the examples of the minority government of the late PV Narasimha Rao and Vajpayee’s coalition, Naidu told TNIE in an interview onboard his special flight from Vijayawada to Tirupati that past experience showed that coalitions performed much better than governments with absolute majority. “The formation of a “united front” comprising regional parties is a natural consequence of the Modi dispensation’s underwhelming performance,’’ he explained.
Naidu, the senior-most among regional as well as national politicians, believes coalitions do not necessarily bring instability. “PV Narasimha Rao’s minority government introduced reforms. Vajpayee’s coalition government implemented reforms. Indira Gandhi, because of no reform, at that time, there was not much progress. Now, Modi has clear-cut majority... first time in 30 years. But he is unable to perform,’’ Naidu pointed out. On the prospects of the TDP, he exuded confidence that the party will retain power because of its welfare schemes and development work.
‘What is wrong in auctioning Jagan assets?’
Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has sought to know as to what is wrong if the ‘illegal’ assets of YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy are auctioned on the lines of the properties of scam-hit AgriGold firm. “Why should there be a different rule?” Stating that the government is auctioning the assets of even the individuals connected to AgriGold to do justice to the victims, Naidu alleged that Jagan amassed wealth through corrupt means and there was nothing wrong in applying the same rule to him. Speaking to the media at Velagapudi on Saturday, Naidu said the crimes committed by Jaganmohan Reddy would put to shame those of AgriGold owners, liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamond merchant Nirav Modi.