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Congress party alone has presence in every State, says Pranab

Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI: Faced with questions from within the Congress itself about the high command’s decision not to forge a national-level alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said no other party could claim to have the cohesiveness and spread of the Grand Old Party.

Explaining the overall strategy for the Lok Sabha elections at the media orientation workshop for the Congress spokespersons from across the country, the Minister asked “Which political party can I call a national party?” and answered: “A national party should have a national policy, a clear foreign policy, a cohesive policy for internal security, an economic policy and a social policy.”

Stating that no party could claim to have such a comprehensive policy that represented all sections, regions and interests of India, Mr. Mukherjee asked: “Can a Tamil-based party provide a candidate in Jammu & Kashmir?” And, provided the answer: “The Congress alone has a presence in every State, however negligible it may be in comparison to its prime.”

Coalition inevitable

While he urged the party’s rank and file to approach the elections with the determination of returning to power on its own, the Minister conceded the ground reality — particularly in crucial States such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, which together account for more than 200 seats — and said a coalition was inevitable; particularly for the sake of political stability.

Optimistic of the effort being made by the party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to build a cadre within the party, the Minister said the emergence of a strong cadre-based regiment could help the organisation revive itself, even if slowly, in areas where it had been wiped out.

On India’s foreign policy – particularly vis-À-vis Pakistan – Mr. Mukherjee sought to drive home the point that there was no comparison between the present situation and 1971. Pointing out that neither India nor Pakistan were a nuclear weapon State in 1971, he said a war with Pakistan could have a spillover effect on the entire neighbourhood.

Calls on Advani

PTI reports:

Mr. Mukherjee on Tuesday drove to the residence of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani to “thank him for his sincere cooperation” extended over the last five years.

“It was just a courtesy call,” the Congress leader told journalists after the 30-minute meeting with the with NDA’s prime ministerial candidate. “I was Leader of the House and he was the Leader of the Opposition for five years. I just came to thank him for his sincere cooperation.”

Before going for the meeting, Mr. Mukherjee said: “Naturally, when we are going to the hustings, I wanted to meet him once.” Mr. Mukherjee did not specify the issues discussed at the meeting.

Sources, however, said issues of national interest were deliberated on. There was speculation that Mr. Mukherjee met Mr. Advani to discuss the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. It was also speculated that they discussed issues related to some key official appointments, including that of the next Cabinet Secretary and the Election Commissioner after Navin Chawla is elevated as the Chief Election Commissioner on April 20

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