"We are not interested in Narendra Modi. We are interested in the country," says Naidu.
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Congress president Rahul Gandhi along with Andhra Pradesh
chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Photo: PTI
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Eight months after his party quit the BJP-led NDA, TDP chief
N Chandrababu Naidu joined hands with Rahul Gandhi's Congress in what he said
was a step towards building a national alternative to the ruling dispensation.
"We are working for a national alternative to the
BJP," he said in an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor
with the India Today Group, after announcing an alliance with Rahul Gandhi's
party.
He called the move a "save-India, save-democracy"
endeavour. "This is save India, save the country and save democracy,"
the TDP chief accused the BJP government at the centre of "destroying
every institution".
Naidu disagreed with suggestions that the political
partnerships he was trying to stitch together aimed only at unseating PM
Narendra Modi.
"We are not interested in Narendra Modi. We are
interested in the country; we are interested in India," the TDP leader
insisted. He recalled his role in the past in building the National Front, with
V.P. Singh as Prime minister.
"As a senior politician of the country, I have made so
many efforts so many times for alternative platforms. The National Front, the
United Front," he recounted.
Naidu acknowledged that he was meeting leaders from a
cross-section of political parties in order to firm up a broader,
national-level anti-BJP coalition.
"I am talking about save India, save democracy. It is a
bigger platform. I am meeting all leaders. We are working for an alternative to
the BJP," he said.
Naidu reiterated that leaders he was meeting were ready to
sink their political differences out of "democratic compulsions." BSP
chief Mayawati and her rival Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party would work
together, Naidu insisted.
"Both Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati are going to work
together. There were political compulsions earlier. Today, there are democratic
compulsions." Asked whether Rahul Gandhi would lead the proposed alliance,
he said the question would be settled through consensus.
"We'll discuss all these things. It is a
consensus," he said. He disagreed with notions the BJP had no strong
alternative on the national landscape.
"Before elections, what was the great effort of the
BJP? Where did they exist? At that time everybody then thought there was no
alternative for the Congress.
Today, you are saying there is no alternative for the BJP.
This is not correct," he said.
Asked whether he saw himself as a future leader at the
centre, he said, "I am not an aspirant. But I will do my bit. I will play
my role for bringing everybody (together). We will work together. Somebody will
do, I will follow. Ultimately, I will do my best whatever is possible for this
great nation."
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-vs-rest-naidu-experiments-with-mahagathbandhan-1380786-2018-11-02
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