The Hindu : National : Disband Congress, says Venkaiah Naidu

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Monday, Apr 26, 2004

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National

Disband Congress, says Venkaiah Naidu

By Our Special Correspondent

KOCHI, APRIL 25. In a tit-for-tat, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, today said the Congress should be disbanded and the `family company' closed down.

The Congress had demanded on Saturday that the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, should retire as he was unable to manage the allies in the National Democratic Alliance.

Addressing a party meeting here, Mr. Naidu recalled that soon after Independence, Mahatma Gandhi had called for disbanding the Congress. Mr. Naidu alleged that the Congress was now a family-run company. "It is not even a public limited company; it is a private company run by a family," he added.

He said the present-day Congress was not the original but a "duplicate." It was just an "I" Congress and the party leaders' focus was on the "I." The Congress had no ideology, no sense of direction. The party was in a pathetic state as it had no leader. It was not sure of Sonia Gandhi's leadership and that was why it had fielded her children in the campaign, he said.

He claimed that many Congress leaders were leaving the party and joining the BJP. For instance, Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law (Maneka Gandhi) and grandson (Varun Gandhi) were with the BJP now, he said.

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