After rejecting any national-level coalition with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies earlier this month, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today told her party not to depend on partners but to fight the upcoming elections on its own strength.
Asking her colleagues to “give the coming battle our all”, Gandhi today said in the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting: “Across the country we enjoy widespread support and goodwill. It is for us — and us alone — to translate this into electoral advantage.”
The Congress is yet to shape up its electoral seat adjustments with partners like Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party. It has asked for more seats from its allies but the partners are unwilling so far to accommodate the additional demands of the Congress. In this context, Gandhi today significantly reminded the party not to dilute its organisational strength.
“Being in coalition does not, in any way, dilute our responsibility to strengthen our party organisation everywhere without exception”, she told the party’s parliamentary body.
At the same time, in her last CPP address of the 14th Lok Sabha, Gandhi harped on the party’s unity ahead of the polls. “Above all, after the candidates have been announced, we must remain united and put our combined weight behind them. As I have said, party comes before self,” she said.
“I have pointed out that we are often our own worst enemies. Let the 2009 parliamentary elections herald a new beginning of discipline and cohesion.
All of us will gain if our party comes back to power,” Gandhi added.
More From This Section
The Congress president also warned against complacency and tried to boost the morale of the party workers asking them to adopt a fighting position in tough seats. “A defeatist attitude does not help. Let us remind those who held such an attitude in 2004, how wrong they were! Let us face the coming challenge with boldness, confidence and determination to win,” she said.
Although the Congress wants to face the electors on the strength of the UPA government’s achievements, Gandhi also admitted that “state-level issues and local-level concerns” might come into prominence. Apart from the present conditions in Sri Lanka, the Congress is also worried about the impact of the Telengana issue in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
“Our campaign strategy must emphasise that the forthcoming polls are for electing a national government, a government that has an all-India perspective, a government that has the concerns of the entire country, in all its many diversities and in the multitudes of the hopes and aspirations of the people,” she said.
“We will go to the people on the basis that India needs most of all today a national party but which is equally sensitive to regional and local sentiments,” she added.
“We have always believed that coalitions impose a culture of restraint and discipline on all partners. I can confidently say that in these past five years, we have throughout been mindful of the lakshman rekha when it comes to public positions and pronouncements,” she said.
Gandhi pointed out that record economic growth rates, substantial reduction of inflation rates, increases in public expenditures in social sector and flagship programmes that enabled thousands of people to tackle poverty would be the key planks for the party in the upcoming polls.