The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress workers rally behind Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 20, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress workers rally behind Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 19. Notwithstanding the formal announcement of Manmohan Singh as Prime Ministerial candidate, Congressmen across the State continue to root for Sonia Gandhi. They staged demonstrations appealing to Ms. Gandhi to accept the leadership and protested against the BJP leaders' vicious campaign on Wednesday.

At Gandhi Bhavan, the party's headquarters, members of the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Congress, including Veena Pasha, Tresa Reddy and Kaveri, commenced a relay hunger strike to build `moral pressure' on Ms. Gandhi to accept the mantle. They squatted on the staircase leading to the office premises.

They also criticised the BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj, and the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharathi, for their `disparaging remarks' against Ms. Gandhi, and wanted them to apologise. In a statement, Utpala Sarada, spokesperson of the AP Congress Committee, made a similar demand.

For the second day, Congress workers burnt the effigies of Mrs. Swaraj and Ms. Bharathi. Even as this was going on Govardhan, a party worker from Jambagh, held out threats of self- immolation before he was prevailed upon by his supporters. The police did not register any case, saying it was not a serious incident.

Speaking on behalf of the Congress Legislature Party, K. R. Suresh Reddy and D. Sridhar Babu said it was sad that Ms. Gandhi refused to accept the post though the people's mandate was clearly in her favour. They expressed surprise at the silence of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at the `outbursts' of his party leaders. He seemed to have forgotten his appeal to all party leaders to conduct the election campaign with dignity. The former APCC president, M. Satyanarayana Rao, too, blamed the BJP leaders for Ms. Gandhi's decision.

ABVP welcomes Sonia's decision

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) today welcomed the decision of Sonia Gandhi not to accept the post of Prime Minister and instead support Manmohan Singh for the post.

In a statement here, Vemula Narender, State secretary, said the political parties should support efforts to bring an Act preventing foreign-born persons from occupying top posts of the country.

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