Hyderabad: Ruling out advancing the Assembly elections, TDP (Telugu Desam Party) supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said he would prefer to go to polls as per schedule in September 2004 and exuded confidence that his party would pull off an electoral hat-trick on performance plank.

"I know the pulse of the people. They will continue to support me and there is nothing like anti-incumbency for leaders who deliver goods," Naidu said in an interview on the occasion of his becoming the longest serving Chief Minister of the state on April 4.

Naidu, who took over the reins on September 1, 1995 after tumultuous events in TDP leading to dethroning of the founder leader late N T Rama Rao, surpassed the earlier record of Congress Chief Minister late K Brahmananda Reddy who was at the helm from 1963 to 1971.

Naidu, who has emerged as a key outside supporter of NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government, said his support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition at the Centre was based on 'political compulsions' but asserted that his party would not compromise on secularism.

"I am fighting with Congress here. That is my compulsion. We (TDP) have not joined the Central government and we are very clear about the core principles like secularism," he said.

PTI