Sonia serenade sweeps state

UPA chairperson embarks on whirlwind two-day tour of Karnataka, visiting Tumkur and Chitradurga districts
AICC president Sonia Gandhi honouring centenarian seer of Siddaganga Mutt Shivakumara Swami during his 105th birthday celebrations, in Tumkur |EPS
AICC president Sonia Gandhi honouring centenarian seer of Siddaganga Mutt Shivakumara Swami during his 105th birthday celebrations, in Tumkur |EPS

TUMKUR:  Sounding the electoral bugle for Karnataka, where elections will be held next year, AICC president Sonia Gandhi asked her party cadre to set aside individual ambitions and unite to bring the party back to power, even as she launched a veiled attack on the state BJP government.

“People here are fed up with the BJP government; they are looking at the Congress. There is lot of goodwill for the party and we need to convert this into votes,” Sonia said at the state Congress delegates’ meeting here on Saturday.

Mincing no words in her short speech, Sonia spelt out her expectations from the warring state Congress leaders for the next elections. “Let me reiterate that the Assembly elections are not fought in Delhi but on the ground by workers and local leaders. The party, and not individual ambitions, come first,” she said.

The Congress has of late not been able to receive the people’s mandate in Karnataka, for which the party’s weaknesses were a major contributor, she added.

Referring to party’s victory in the recently held by-election to Chikmagalur-Udupi Lok Sabha constituency, which was vacated by Chief Minister D V  Sadananda Gowda, Sonia said: “This testifies that if we work in unity, nobody can defeat us. I am confident this will revive the party, just as the late Indira Gandhi’s victory in Chikmagalur revived the Congress.”

Sonia charged the state government of betraying people. The BJP government has scant respect for the rule of law, she averred, noting that the post of Lokayukta has remained vacant in Karnataka for almost a year.

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