Congress Working Committee member Madhavrao Scindia yesterday ruled out his party entering into alliance with the Left and secular parties and said the Congress was strong enough to stand by itself and would come back to power.
Addressing a press conference here, he blamed the Left parties and Janata Dal for giving a golden opportunity in 1989 to BJP to increase its strength in the Lok Sabha from two to 89 seats by their alliance.
What the BJP got was not its votes but those of the alliance including the Left parties, he said.
More From This Section
He said in sharp contrast to the sense of helplessness prevailing at the Tirupati session of the All India Congress Committee, a sense of confidence was evident in the party rank and file at the recent Calcutta session.
Scindia said that even today the Janata Dal and the Left parties were influenced by blind anti-Congressism.
Secularism, he said, had become an empty slogan. We must give it a body. We must have minority members in the staff selection panels of all public sector units and raise the minorities share in police and other forces, he added.
Asked if the Congress would be led by Kesri or Sonia Gandhi in the next elections, the former Union minister said it was a hypothetical question as Gandhi, whose family had served the nation for four generations, had not yet made up her mind about joining politics.
If Sonia Gandhi did enter politics, she would be a great asset to the party as she has charisma and is a great crowd-puller, Scindia said.