The Hindu : Congress to bring out 'chargesheet' against NDA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 11, 2004

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National

Congress to bring out 'chargesheet' against NDA

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 10.

The Congress will come out with its "chargesheet" on the performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government from four cities on Thursday. While the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, will proceed with her three-day 'Jan Sampark Abhiyan' (Mass Contact Programme) in Andhra Pradesh, senior leaders of the party will occupy the centre stage in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata to "file the chargesheet."

In three of the cities, the respective State Chief Ministers will share the spotlight with the party's central leadership on the occasion - Shiela Dikshit with Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi, Sushil Kumar Shinde with Manmohan Singh in Mumbai, and S.M. Krishna with Natwar Singh in Bangalore. In Kolkata, Arjun Singh will release the "chargesheet."

Meanwhile, the nephew of the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and former leader of the BJP Rajasthan unit's youth wing, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, joined the Congress today apparently disillusioned by the way his former party had abandoned its agenda - particularly reservation for the economically backward - after coming to power in the State.

The former Rajya Sabha member and one of the founding members of the BJP, J.K. Jain, also joined the Congress today and said that it was "the bounden duty of every patriotic Indian to defeat the NDA." A couple of youth leaders of the Rashtriya Lok Dal too switched their loyalties to the Congress.

While some Congress leaders will follow the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani's 'Bharat Uday Yatra' to counter "his propaganda and set the record straight," Ms. Gandhi will continue with her road show in different States.

After her Andhra Pradesh tour, she will undertake similar road shows in Maharashtra, Daman & Diu, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Gujarat early next week. During this tour, she will spend much of her time in Gujarat.

The following weekend (March 20-21), Ms. Gandhi will conduct a similar exercise in Chhattisgarh where her focus will be on the tribal areas. The party was reluctant to say whether the former Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, would accompany her on this whistle-stop tour.

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