Lashing the Congress and Left Parties for politicising the farmers agitation in Madhya Pradesh, Union Housing and Urban Development Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu today said that it was done only to tarnish the image of the Government which was celebrating three years in office.

“Congress is disgruntled and frustrated on the success of NDA government and is unnecessarily politicising and instigating violence in Mandsaur, the scene of farmers’ stir ,” Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here.

These parties were at the game earlier also like exploiting Dadri incident during Uttar Pradesh elections, a conversion issue during Jharkhand elections, he said adding Congress was frustrated, as Prime Minister was becoming a tall leader in the world.

Stating that Congress and other parties that ruled along as allies for the last 50 years, including DMK, have neglected the farmers issues, he said and added that NDA govenrment has taken both short term and long term measures for the benefit of the farmers, like providing rural roads, loan waiver, crop insurance, cold storage and marketing facility.

When asked whether Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivaraj Singh Chauhan can be held responsible for the firing incident, Naidu said that this was done by the local authorities and Chauhan has nothing to do with that.

Stating that he was not justifying the death of farmers in the firing, which was a sad thing, he said that Congress was forgetting that 24 farmers died in a police firing by the then Congress rule in Betul district in that State in 1998 and Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Communists were silent then.

In fact the agriculture sector growth in Madhya Pradesh was 20 per cent as against National average of four per cent, which was highest among the States in India, even not recorded in other BJP ruled states, he said.

Attributing the price problem to the increasing production, he said that the Government has already accepted 11 demands of the farmers and even before discussion, Congress instigated the violence, leading to the firing, in which a judicial inquiry has already been ordered.

On deciding candidate for Presidential elections, Naidu said that NDA will sit and discuss. However, it wanted a consensus candidate for President’s post, he said.

To an allegation that BJP was remote-controlling AIADMK, he quipped “you mean BJP is behind all the three factions?Then BJP will be behind DMK, MDMK and all other parties also” , he said.

He wanted the AIADMK MLAs to remain together, to uphold the legacy of Jayalalithaa on whose name they were elected.