Get ready for early polls, Sonia tells Congressmen

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) would be restructured to gear the party for early elections that were likely to be foisted upon the nation by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

"We have to be prepared and ready ourselves for the coming challenge. Steps to put together election management teams and strategies are already being taken," Gandhi said addressing the Congress parliamentary party meeting.

The party, at its evening briefing, also clarified, for the first time in five days when members of the AICC and the Congress Working Committee (CWC) first sought to submit their resignations, ostensibly, to give Gandhi a free hand in reorganising the party, that the high command had no role in the resignation drama.

This only strengthened the belief in party ranks that heads would roll for the elaborate charade of resignations that Gandhi "refused to accept".

A blame-game had started in the party following the move by AICC office-bearers as a section in the party charged certain leaders with deliberately leaking the news to the media to save their skin and sabotage efforts to restructure the secretariat.

Party spokesmen had dismissed suggestions of any hand of the leadership in the "resignation drama".

This had come amid reports that the exercise was prompted by those "surrounding" Gandhi to deflect attention from the party chief's responsibility for the poll debacle in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Gandhi also said a general election could follow polls in Andhra Pradesh. he sought to jolt Congressmen out of their despondency at the setback in Assembly elections.

"It does not help carry on in this mood. We have to snap out of it. We have to be prepared and ready ourselves for the coming challenge. You will be kept fully informed and involved," she said.

Gandhi also referred to the infighting in the party and the toll it could exact. "When our great party faces many challenges, the need for each and everyone of us to work collectively and cohesively in a self-less spirit of co-operation is paramount," she said.

She also launched a spirited attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "By repeatedly falsifying facts, the BJP is trying to invent a new reality. This is a well-known strategy," she said.

It is for all of us to counter this deliberate deceit and present the truth before the people. We must highlight the BJP's failure in a convincing and aggressive manner," she said.