Chief Minister told in meet the press organized by APUWJ 

HYDERABAD: “I will own full responsibility for the good or bad performance of the Congress in the general elections,” Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy declared. “The elections will not be a referendum on the government’s performance. People will give their verdict on various issues and not one issue as in a referendum,” Dr. Reddy said replying to a query at the ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) on Tuesday.

In an hour-long interaction with journalists, the Chief Minister said he was not hankering after the top post. “I got an opportunity and decided that I should make optimum use of it and serve the people. The result is a number of programmes that we initiated in the last five years,” he added.

To another question that he had an upper hand in the selection of party candidates, he said in the last five years, there were no major groups within the Congress. “The State leaders, including Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president (D. Srinivas), have cooperated with me and the Central leadership also reposed full faith in us,” he said.

Asked whether the dissatisfaction among senior leaders who were dropped would impact the party’s performance, he said: “The dissatisfaction is minimal and we will win more than 230 Assembly and 36 Lok Sabhass seats. “In only 15-20 constituencies, there is some problem over the selection of new candidates. “When a list of such magnitude is announced, the present resentment is minimal which will be set right shortly.”

On the Praja Rajyam chief K. Chiranjeevi and Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu charge of ‘match fixing’ with the Congress, Dr. Reddy said this only showed that the ruling party was the number one. He denied the charge that the Congress had fielded lightweights in Assembly constituencies where the MIM had entered the fray.