Sonia rakes up coffin scam, targets Left on state economy

She added that it had become very difficult to understand what Vajpayee was saying ‘‘these days’’ as ‘‘the Prime Minister says something different and contrary every day’’.

Stating that crores had been spent on the “India Shining” campaign by the BJP, she asked ‘‘but what is the real achievement?’’ NDA’s achievement, she alleged, was record corruption in the past six years, including the coffin scam.

Campaigning for candidates from Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituencies, Sonia, at another rally in Kalchini, ridiculed the BJP’s ‘feel-good’ campaign, saying the Vajpayee Government had only shown ‘‘unrealistic dreams’’ to the people ‘‘grossly neglecting’’ the basic issues of poverty and unemployment.

Taking up the coffin scandal here as well, Sonia said: ‘‘The party is bogged down with corruption and scandals…they did not even spare the money of the jawans at the border. The coffin scandal is not a distant memory.’’

Even as she called upon ‘‘progressive’’ West Bengal to spearhead the movement to bring about a change at the Centre, Sonia blamed the Left Front government for the decline of the tea industry.

Sonia alleged that there had been 27 years of ‘‘misrule’’ in West Bengal. ‘‘There has been no development, as such, while the number of jobless has shot up during the Left Front regime. The crisis in the tea industry has deepened further, leading to the closure of gardens at the expense of thousands of labourers.’’

She vowed to reopen the tea gardens ‘‘if my party is given the required mandate in the Lok sabha elections’’.

Speaking in Dhulian, Sonia said her first task would be to remove the BJP from power. Stating that Congress would put the country ‘‘back on the rails of progress’’, she said: ‘‘Here our fight is against both BJP and CPI(M). We are against the CPI(M) in running the government here.’’

Addressing a crowded rally, in the presence of Jangipur parliamentary constituency candidate Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia said Congress would strive to bring back social unity ‘‘removed during BJP rule’’ and added, ‘‘we have taken the initiative to unite secular parties, but political arithmetic is different. Each party is taking care of its own interest’’.