Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Venkaiah Naidu today (Oct 6, 2004) claimed that the Vajpayee-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government had provided relief worth Rs 1750 crore for the drought-affected regions of Maharashtra.

Rejecting the Congress-NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) claim that previous NDA Government did little for drought-relief, Naidu claimed that the relief was provided in the form of food grain, loans and cash.

"The second instalment of Rs 500 crore could not (not) be announced by Vajpayee as the code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls was in effect that time," the BJP president told reporters.

Earlier, he denied that the Sena-BJP was left without an issue in the assembly campaign.

"Non-performance of the Democratic Front (DF) Government and failure on all fronts itself is an issue," Naidu said demanding that the DF Government explain its achievements in last five years.

Terming the DF rule as "total breach and betrayal of people's wishes", he said the government has failed to act on even basic issues like electricity, roads, drinking water, health and education.

"Once a surplus electricity State, Maharashtra today faces power cuts, farmers are committing suicides and the debt is mounting", Naidu said, adding that the performance of the State reflected from the exposure of the Telgi scam, arrest of senior police officers and subsequent resignation of the Deputy Chief Minister Chhgan Bhujbal.