In a statement, the party listed 15 scams, ranging from the Rs 30-crore 1948 jeep scandal and Rs 67-crore Bofors scandal of 1987 to the Rs 8000-crore bank scam and Rs 5000-crore sugar scandal of 1993.

``How can the Congress, whose leadership presided over the loot of the country and stole almost Rs one lakh crore, even talk of ethics?'' it said.

Party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu described as `laughable' Sonia's four claims : that the Congress was not greedy for power and did not want it through jod-tod; that the BJP's sole interest was communal politics; that the BJP-led government had weak leadership; and that the Congress could give ethical governance.

The Congress, Naidu said, was always greedy for power. If it were not, it would not have embarkedon a `fishing expedition' to enlist the support of the Marxists, who had hurled abuses at the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and political outfits led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav. The state units of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had bitterly criticised both Yadavs, he added.

Accusing the Congress of suffering from selective amnesia, Naidu said that the party's jod-tod politics was clear when the Congress government led by P V Narasimha Rao secured a majority in the 10th Lok Sabha by bribing MPs and splitting parties.

He also said that the Congress was ``singularly to blame'' for communalising politics. The Shah Bano case and Sonia's recent promise that Mizoram would be given ``Gospel rule'' if the Congress came to power in the Christian-majority state were two examples of this, he said.

On Sonia's charge of weak leadership, Naidu said that the accusation was in fact true for the Congress which succumbed to US pressure to cancel the nuclear tests, bowed to the World Bank andgave safe passage to Pakistani terrorists.

The BJP-led government, on the other hand, had taken some decisive steps like Pokhran II, resolving the Cauvery dispute and bringing the PM under the Lok Pal Bill.