New Delhi, Feb 10: Bharatiya Janata Party President M Venkaiah Naidu today said congress allegations that his party and the TDP were responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were atrocious and the ''vicious campaign would boomerang'' on it. Mr Naidu told newspersons after a series of party's poll preparatory meetings at his residence that the allegations to this effect by senior Congress leader Ghulam Aabi Azad at Hyderabad were most 'atrocious'. ''What was most illogical was Mr Azad's demand, asking the Prime Minister to resign for the events that had taken place during the Congress tenure and Mr V Pratap Singh's Prime ministership,'' he added. He said the Delhi High Court, which had given a clean-chit to former Mr Gandhi in the Bofors case, had not stated that there were no middlemen or commission paid to them. The court infact had confirmed that the commission was paid to the middlemen, he added.

The BJP President said while he could understand the reaction of the Congress to the extent that they stood vindicated by the judgement. ''to demand the resignation of the prime minister, who was the least vocal at that point of time in the opposition, as outrageous,'' he added. He said the Congress should demand apologies from Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, the two communist parties which had resigned en mass to whip up a campaign against Mr Gandhi.

Mr Naidu said it was on record that the congress had brought down the United Front government charging the involvement of the DMK and MDMK for their alleged links with the LTTE in the Rajiv assassination case. ''Now these parties are a part of the Congress-led alliance in Tamil Nadu and no amount of explaining would bring the Congress.

Bureau Report