The Hindu : Front Page : Gear up for polls next year: Sonia

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Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008
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Gear up for polls next year: Sonia

Gargi Parsai

Asks MPs to draw lessons from defeats

Mobilise ryots for availing loan waiver
Counter forces spreading hatred

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday called upon her party MPs to prepare for the general elections “next year,” virtually ruling out, for now, the possibility of early polls.

Speaking at a Congress Party Parliamentary meeting in Parliament House, she expressed the confidence that the party’s “outstanding record of achievements would earn it the trust and the mandate of the people once again.”

Expressing “disappointment” over the Congress performance in the recent Assembly elections in some States, she said the party must learn its lessons. It lost prestigious elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and more recently in Tripura and Nagaland.

Summarising what she expected of party members, Ms. Gandhi said: “We need much harder work, meticulous preparation, much more careful selection of candidates, [better] strategies, much greater unity and discipline.”

Assembly elections are due this year in some crucial States, including Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

Some MPs who attended the meeting said they had been asked to work in their constituencies for better results. Ms. Gandhi asked them to obtain from the Collectors, who head the ‘District Coordination Committees for Banks,’ district-wise data of farm loan beneficiaries to mobilise farmers to availing themselves of their entitlement (loan waiver as announced in the budget proposals.)

Ms. Gandhi referred to the Maharashtrian versus non-Maharashtrian controversy in Mumbai and decried the “violent manifestations of bigoted provincialism deliberately engineered for narrow political gains.”

She asked MPs to take the lead in countering forces that thrived on spreading hatred and prejudice. “This prejudice translates into violence not just against migrant labour but also against minorities in States ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and some of its National Democratic Alliance allies such as the Biju Janata Dal.”

Lauds Manmohan

She lauded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for demolishing the arguments of BJP leaders with powerful counters in Parliament last week in his reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address.

However, Ms. Gandhi did not refer to the nuclear deal or the Women’s Reservation Bill. She later hosted dinner for the MPs.

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