Talking to media persons here, Shinde castigated the Central Government for ``its failure in handling the situation at the border.'' He said that the BJP was posing the victory of brave soldiers as the victory of the party and warned them against trying to gain political mileage out of the sacrifices made by the soldiers.

He ridiculed the BJP for its earlier criticism of the Bofors gun purchase deal. ``The party had severely criticised the deal then, and now it has no qualms in using the Bofors guns to fight the enemy. It shows how unwarranted their criticism was.''

He said that economical stability and social equality will be the main election plank for the party. He made it clear that the Congress will not any truck with any political party at the national-level. However, the decision at the State-level will be taken considering the political situation of the region. West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and other few states are under the consideration for alliance with secular parties, he said.

Shinde brushed aside the claims that the Muslims are with the Nationalist Congress party. Earlier, Shinde addressed the district party workers' meet at Congress Bhavan which had a large attendance. He said that the public meeting of Sonia Gandhi have drawn tremendous response in the northern state ``which reflects that the people have tired of the communal philosophy of the BJP and they want change.''

At the meeting, many leaders, former MLAs and chairmen of co-operative sugar factories and spinning mills expressed confidence in him.

Shinde has undertaken a three-day visit to the Solapur Lok Sabha constituency and is trying to have close rapport with the electorates.