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Momentum is with Cong.: Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 20. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today sounded upbeat about her party's prospects in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

"The momentum is with the Congress, and gradually but definitely we are being acknowledged as the natural party of governance and administration," Ms. Gandhi said, while addressing the general body meeting of the CPP. She expressed the confidence that the people of Gujarat would reject the forces that "spread hate and preach bigotry".

"We are confident that the people of Gujarat will reject the forces that have done so much damage to its fair name, legacy, religious tolerance and understanding," she said.

She regretted that the Home Minister, L.K. Advani, did not disapprove of the attack on the constitutional institutions such as the Election Commission by the BJP, VHP in his reply to the debate in the Lok Sabha.

Impressing upon her party MPs, the importance of nine Assembly elections scheduled next year, Ms. Gandhi said that of the nine States, the Congress was in power in five. She told the members that an election strategy group had been set up in the AICC.

Referring to the elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Ms. Gandhi said that her party had given up its natural claim to the Chief Minister's post in the larger interest of the State and the nation. "By doing so we have placed the interest of the nation above us," she said. She called on the Centre to cooperate with the new State Government. "There is simply no room for partisan politics on the issue."

Ms. Gandhi was critical of the NDA Government, accusing it of failing the people on all fronts. "Farms and factories are suffering, industry and investment continue to be mired in stagnation".

On the foreign policy front, India's standing had fallen sharply. Nothing had been achieved by the unprecedented troop mobilisation on the border, she claimed.

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