Jun 28 2008
Get ready for polls, says Sonia to Congress!
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has buzzed the poll buzzer on Saturday asking the party to prepare for general elections during a meeting convened by her of top party functionaries.
The announcement clearly indicates that the party is willing to risk elections amid soaring inflation rate and dilemma of N-deal. Sonia Gandhi directed senior leaders to draw up time-bound programs and strategies to re-energize the party in all states to get prepare for the polls.
“This meeting was about poll preparations. The Lok Sabha elections were also discussed, the party has to get ready for polls and everybody has been asked to draw up programs and submit the same at the next meeting,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters here.
The Congress president has given party men a time-table for building the party at all levels, Veerappa Moily, chairman of the AICC Media Cell said.
Sonia during the meet also directed Congress leaders to tell people about party’s achievements like the Rs 60,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme announced by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2008 Union Budget.
However, much talked N-deal is not subjected to discussion during the meet. “The issue has already been discussed at two working committee meetings,” a senior leader said.
Though the UPA constituents strongly favor the nuclear deal, they hold almost equally strident views against holding of early elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had on Thursday released its first list of candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections. The list has names of five other candidates - Navjot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar), Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur), Shripad Y Naik (Panaji), Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur) and TPS Rawat (Pauri).
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate LK Advani will contest from Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat. Lok Sabha elections are due around April next year.
