Let Advani, Joshi resign before Rabri quits — Sonia

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was firm that there was no change in the equation of the Congress with the RJD after a CBI special court in Patna chargesheeted Bihar’s first couple in a disproportionate assets case, an offshoot of the multi-crore fodder scam.

Talking to newsmen at the Fursatganj airport, Sonia said that for those who are criticising or demanding resignation of the Bihar chief minister, “I would like to say that let the Prime Minister ask his Cabinet colleagues Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to quit their posts as they have also been charge-sheeted in the Babri Majid demolition case.”

The Congress chief is on a three-day visit to her parliamentary constituency of Amethi to oversee the various developmental works and also the progress of the Shramdan schemes being implemented in the constituency of Sultanpur and Rae Bareli.

When the Congress chief was asked about the `problems’ being faced by the party at different places particularly at Delhi, Sonia said that it was not her party alone which was facing such a situation. “It has always been there with all the major political parties”, she added.

Though Sonia was in a hurry, she replied to almost all the questions posed to her at the airport. “Ask quickly”, Sonia told reporters from Lucknow when they approached her as she was preparing to move to address Panchayat leaders at “Panchayat Pratinidhi Sabha” of Tiloi and Salon Assembly segments of Amethi parliamentary constituency falling in the Rae Bareli district.

Over the joint agitational course with Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee, a partner of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre, the Congress chief said her party would not compromise on the principle of secularism.

Mamata Banerjee is in the NDA and there was no question of having any alliance with her party, she added.

Later, interacting with the elected representative of the panchayats belonging to Tiloi and Salone of Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, Sonia said “it was the dream of her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to give the poor and downtrodden a share in power for implementation of developmental schemes.”

Asking the panchayat leaders, whom she described as “sachche (real) representative of the people” to openly air their views over the issue, Sonia said she had ambitious programmes for the development of Amethi, but lack of power and scarcity of resources was causing difficulty to translate these projects into reality.

She, however, quickly added “there was no dearth of `lagan’ (dedication) and `samarpan’ (devotion).” She told them that incomplete works would be accomplished with the help of Sharamdan by the local people.