Narendra Modi must go, says Jaya

chennai/hyderabad: after telugu desam party (tdp) chief chandrababu naidu on wednesday reiterated his demand for the removal of gujarat chief minister narendra modi, tamil nadu chief minister j jayalalithaa too made a similar demand. ''there is no need to advance the assembly elections there. what is needed is a change of government. it is up to to the bjp and the centre to take necessary steps in gujarat,'' jayalalithaa told reporters in chennai. she said parliament had not functioned properly on account of the issue of modi's ouster and it was the centre's duty to put an end to it. ''peace has so far not returned in gujarat and therefore in the interest of the nation, the centre should find an amicable and immediate solution,'' she observed. she refrained from making any comment when asked if she expected any threat to the nda government as the tdp had sought modi's ouster. ''i will prefer to wait and watch,'' she said. she evaded a question on a possible political realignment at the national level after the meeting between samajwadi party chief mulayam singh yadav and congress president sonia gandhi. she termed the issue as hypothetical. jayalalithaa, who has been trying to come close to the nda, had so far been non-committal about gujarat, except for condemning the violence. in fact, she had come down heavily on fellow politicians for not condemning the godhra train killings, wondering why they did not condemn the crime against the majority community while taking a serious view of all crimes against the minority community. given her demand for the ouster of modi and her opposition to allowing ltte spokesperson anton balasingham to stay in india, the aiadmk now seems to be going back to a neutral path. in case of a change of the political scenario at the national level, it would not be difficult for her to decide which side to go. she already enjoys the full support of the congress on the ltte issue and now she is supporting the ouster of modi, something that the congress has been demanding. later, reacting to the happenings in parliament, naidu told reporters in hyderabad that parliament was seized of the issue. asked what he would do since the proceedings of the house were stalled, naidu shot back: ''it is not new. parliament was stalled in the past also for several days on a specific issue and it not unusual for parliament to be deadlocked.''