Bharatiya Janata Party chief M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday lost his temper with reporters, who asked him whether Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had upbraided him for his remarks.

As soon as he emerged from his chamber in the party's Ashoka Road headquarters, he was surrounded by a contingent of television and print newspersons.

"Your question is not justified, I am not going to answer," an agitated BJP chief said and moved to break free, when a reporter wanted to know Vajpayee's reaction to his announcement that the BJP will project both the prime minister and his deputy Lal Kishenchand Advani during the next general election.

Turning his wrath on a persistent reporter, Naidu said, "Is this an inquisition, do we have to consult the press regarding whom we talk to and what we talk? Is this relevant?  I don't understand. Will the country's agenda be decided by political parties or by you people?"

"Do we have to spell out to you people to whom we talked and for how long?" he asked angrily.

When another reporter asked the reason for the prime minister's 'anger' against him, the BJP chief really lost his cool.

"Yes, he (Vajpayee) must have spoken to you. This is a useless question. Who told you about it? Are you asking this on behalf of some political party?" a thoroughly offended Naidu asked.

"He (Vajpayee) did not say anything to me so where does the question of anger come? Why are you spreading this erroneous impression?  There is no question of my clarifying it, you people decide something and take it as gospel truth," he said.

"You are interfering politically, you are making absurd political insinuation, this is not the duty of a mediaperson," he told another reporter, who asked whether the prime minister had really taken him to task.

The BJP chief told the reporters that they can write whatever they liked but that will not change the reality.

Yet another reporter asked the BJP chief to explain why Vajpayee had said what he said. Naidu answered, "The issue is very clear, the BJP has decided the next parliamentary polls would be fought under Vajpayee's leadership under whom everybody else, including Advani, come."

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