KALABURAGI: AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said party senior leader Sonia Gandhi and he have been invited by the Ramjanmabhumi Trust to attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony at Ayodhya on January 22, and they will decide at an appropriate time whether to attend the ceremony.
Everyone, including activists from any political party, who have faith in Lord Rama can attend the ceremony at Ayodhya, he said. On the unity in opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc, he expressed confidence that they will face the Lok Sabha elections as a big force and teach BJP a lesson.
He requested alliance partners not to engage in war of words against one another, but to sit indoors and sort out issues. Unity among partners is the need of the hour, he cautioned. On sharing of seats among partners for the Lok Sabha elections, he said all bloc members are making their own assessments to decide which seats to contest from.
A committee from Congress will meet alliance partners to discuss the seats that the Grand Old Party will contest from and those that can be given to other parties. The ultimate aim of the bloc is to win a maximum number of seats and form the government, he said.
Most departments at the Centre have not spent even 30% of the amount allocated to them in the budget. When they have not done it in the last 10 months, how will they exhaust their allocations in the next two months, he wondered.
On raids by central agencies on Opposition leaders, he said the raids are to put pressure on Opposition leaders to defect to BJP from their parties. No Prime Ministerr from Congress, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh, had threatened the Opposition using central agencies, he said. “When leaders are in Opposition, they are the butt of attacks by the PM and other BJP leaders. Once they join BJP, they become good,” he said.