``Those in power in the State are nothing but a gang of cowards who invoke the name of the great Maratha warrior, Chhatrapati Shivaji, but are out to terrorise the people,'' she said, addressing a huge rally organised by the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) here.

In an uncharacteristically strident speech concluding her visit to the State, Gandhi also bitterly criticised Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's stand on the forthcoming India-Pakistan cricket series, dubbing it a diversionary tactic. She said it was merely an attempt to divert public attention from the government's failure to solve burning issues.

``First they vandalise cinema houses and now they dig up cricket pitches. The Independencethe country achieved 50 years ago was not just from the British yoke but also to gain the right to vote and freedom of expression,'' she told the mammoth gathering after inaugurating an all-women cooperative sugar mill at Ichalkaranji and a cotton cooperative factory in Edalabad, Jalgaon.

The Congress president also accused the State Government of ``throttling the cooperative movement, spreading communal venom among the people and banning sports and freedom of speech''.

Referring to the Shiv Sena, Gandhi remarked political parties that were held responsible by the Srikrishna Commission for causing the communal riots in 1992-93 in Mumbai cannot be trusted. ``What the Maharashtra government is doing is not just a political issue but it is related to the very soul of the nation. Every patriotic and peace-loving Indian should fight these forces,'' she said.

And she promised a better deal under a Congress regime, saying her party was concerned about all sections of people, including women, and all sectors ofthe economy. ``Recently 3,000 industries closed down making three lakh unemployed. We will oppose the scrapping of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act since the State Government's intention is to bring in anti-social elements in this sector,'' the Congress president alleged.

These words she belted out to the cheering crowd of over 1,50,000 people who had been gathering here since 10 am for the meeting at 3 pm.

Present on the dias were INTUC's national and state presidents Sanjeeva Reddy and Govindrao Adik respectively, AICC general secretary Madhavrao Scindia, former Union home minister S B Chavan and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Prataprao Bhosle.

Arching from the dismal performance of the Sena-BJP alliance Gandhi fired at the coalition at the Centre on its economic performance. ``Under the non-Congress governments, our economic condition has been very bad. Production has gone down, no new capital is coming in, agro sector is at a standstill, inflation is a worry... the common man'slife has not improved,'' she said.