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TDP seeks permission to speak after PM

The Telugu Desam Party has sought time from the speaker to state its position after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's reply to the debate on the Opposition-sponsored censure motion on Gujarat in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Telugu Desam Party politburo member and Andhra Pradesh Home Minister T Devender Goud told reporters in Hyderabad in the afternoon that the party was hopeful its core demands would be met.

"We are expecting a positive response from the prime minister," he said. "Depending on his reply, our party will take a decision then and there. [That is why] our party has requested the speaker's permission to speak after the prime minister's reply. We want to state the TDP's viewpoint immediately."

Goud said the party politburo met in the morning and reviewed the situation, including Coal Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's resignation. "Our party is sticking to its stand on Gujarat," he said. "The TDP has taken this stand from the beginning. We will have the same position on the floor of Parliament."

Goud said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held a teleconference with TDP MPs in Delhi in the morning and told the party's leader in Parliament, K Yerran Naidu, to spell out their stand during the debate.

The party, Goud said, stands by its four demands: that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should go, that law and order should be restored immediately, that rehabilitation of all victims should be taken up and that assembly elections should not be held immediately in the state.

"It [the demand for Modi's resignation] is there and will be there," was his cryptic comment when asked what the TDP would do if Modi remained in power. "We still have hopes," he added.

About Paswan's resignation, Goud said, "It was his party's view (that he should resign). We have our own view."

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