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THROW OUT BJP-LED NDA - SONIA GANDHI

Whirlwind Tour of Western Uttar Pradesh

Sonia Gandhi Writes to PM on Haj NEW DELHI: The Congress president, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, on December 23 urged the Government to keep the new rules for subsidy to Haj pilgrims in abeyance till the entire matter was reviewed in consultation with the Opposition parties. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Congress president said the new restrictions on the subsidy had created "intense distress" to the next batch of pilgrims due to part shortly.

SHAMLI (UP): Asserting that the Congress is ready for the Lok Sabha elections any time and the party machinery is being geared up for this purpose, the Congress president, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, on January 12 accused the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre of failure on all fronts. Terming the Vajpayee government as "anti-farmers," Smt. Gandhi said that while the farmers were facing hardships, the BJP-led Central Government was busy raking up her "foreign origin" issue.

Addressing party workers and farmers at various places during a whirlwind tour of western Uttar Pradesh along the Muzzafarnagar-Shamli-Baghpat stretch, Smt. Gandhi said the NDA Government had failed to live up to the expectations of the people and the time had come to throw out this "inefficient and corrupt" set-up at the Centre. The NDA Government was nothing but a marriage of convenience among some parties who desperately want to stick to power, she charged.

She addressed party workers at Shamli _ where she garlanded a statue of the former Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh _ then at Baraut and on her last stop at Baghpat. During the entire journey, Smt. Gandhi, accompanied by a large cavalcade of vehicles, had brief halts on the roadside and responded to greetings by party workers. However, there were many people who were disappointed, as she could not stop by due to her tight schedule.

Smt. Gandhi, in her speeches, made it a point to highlight the plight of the sugarcane farmers and said they were bearing the brunt of the "wrong policies" of the Vajpayee Government. She said the sugar mill owners were not making payments to the farmers and the dues, running into hundreds of crores of rupees, had now stretched into two seasons. "It is unfortunate that no steps had been initiated by the Central Government to clear the dues of the farmers and mitigate their suffering."

In Muzaffarnagar, the Congress President said it was "certain" that the BJP would not return to power at the Centre and said the saffron party's raising of her foreign origin reflected its "fear". "Yeh baat tai hai ki BJP ki sarkar nahi banegi (it is decided that the BJP will not form the government at the Centre)," Smt. Gandhi told reporters in Meerut.

Asked to react to the BJP making her foreign origin a poll issue, she said "I ask them why are they afraid of one women. I don't care … all I care for is the people … the poor and the farmers." Smt. Gandhi said the coming polls were a challenge for her party and "we are preparing for it. Congress workers, as you can see, are charged up (utsahit hai) and ready to face any situation," she told reporters at Dhirkhedi village.

Virtually launching her party's campaign for the coming Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh vowing to "finish off" the BJP-led NDA, Smt. Sonia Gandhi said in Bulandshahr on January 10, "My message to the people is to finish off (dhvast karna hai) the BJP and its allies."

Smt. Gandhi, accompanied by senior leaders, Smt. Mohsina Kidwai and Shri Salman Khursheed and the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president, Shri Jagdambika Pal, shook hands with the villagers who had lined up on either side of the road from Khurja to Bulandshahr