TDP directs partymen not to indulge in personal attacks

Hyderabad, Oct 20 (UNI) The Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today directed the cadre to show restraint and not to indulge in personal vendetta.

Talking to newsmen here, TDP General Secretary Sobha Nagi Reddy said the Party Chief N Chandrababu Naidu wanted the workers to target government policies and not persons.

The reaction comes in the wake of TDP workers writing the name of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on a buffalo and Congressmen retaliating by scribbling Mr Naidu's name on a donkey and parading it.

When animal lovers protested the use of animals, the High Court directed both the parties not to indulge in protests involving animals.

The TDP workers then made up a partyman as Dr Reddy and paraded him, hitting him with broomsticks. The Congress did the same by using a cadre as Mr Naidu.

The TDP leader said that it was the strong feeling of the party chief that names of political leaders should not be written on animals and asked Congress leadership to give similar advice to its workers.

The TDP General Secretary said the state government which gave a crop holiday last year, had given a festival holiday this season by creating artificial shortage of cooking gas.

She sarcastically said this was a gift from the government to those celebrating Ramzan and Diwali.

Ms Reddy claimed while the Congress promised a subsidy of Rs 100 on each cylinder, it had hiked the price by Rs 100.

She also alleged that kerosene was being sold in the black market in the villages and the prices of essential commodities were sky-rocketing.

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