NEW DELHI, Feb 2: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Haryana counterpart Bansi Lal today lashed out at the Congress for relying on a `foreigner' to campaign for it in the current Lok Sabha elections.Addressing a mammoth rally at the Ambedkar stadium to kick off the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) election campaign here, the two leaders said that Sonia Gandhi was an Italian and it was a shame on the part of the Congress that it could not find any leader for the prime ministerial post.They said it was so because the Congress was disintegrating day by day. During the almost fifty years, barring a few, it had not devoted itself to development of the country and allowed corruption in almost all fields.
Also holding the Congress responsible for lowering India's prestige in the world, they cautioned voters not to be carried away by ``Congress propaganda'' and give their clear mandate to the BJP and its supportive parties for a stable government and an able prime minister in Atal BehariVajpayee.
Bansi Lal and Badal pointed out that the Congress was responsible for imposing another Lok Sabha election within a span of eight months after twice pulling down United Front governments to whom it had extended support to keep BJP out.
The Gujral government, Bansi said, was brought down on the Jain report but Congress did not allow even a debate on the report in the Lok Sabha as it was afraid it would not be able to get any mileage.Both Lal and Badal praised ally BJP for extending full cooperation to the administration in ther respective seats.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
