The Hindu : National : Congress in a dilemma, says Venkaiah Naidu

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Friday, Apr 16, 2004

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National

Congress in a dilemma, says Venkaiah Naidu

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, APRIL 15. The Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, said today that the Congress was in a dilemma on the question of leadership, alliance politics and the choice of allies.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Naidu said that on the question of leadership, the party first said only Sonia Gandhi enjoyed the status. Later, it said that the leadership question could be decided after the elections. On alliance politics its decision at Pachmarhi was that it would go it alone. Now it recognised the role of political coalitions and had formed its own alliances. As for allies, at one time it wanted to come to an understanding with the Bahujan Samaj Party and then changed its mind to make the Samajwadi Party its partner.

``The wavering of the Congress only reflected its nervousness and the party was now only fighting to retain a two-digit strength in the Lok Sabha.''

On the contrary, he said, the National Democratic Alliance was brimming with confidence.

The BJP was trying to bring home the point that India had lagged behind during the past 50 years only because of the ``wrong policies'' of the Congress while the NDA had a clear road map to develop the country as a superpower.

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