LUCKNOW, July 20: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today kicked off the campaign in the Hindi heartland for the coming electoral battle. Admitting that inner dissensions had harmed the party in the past, she appealed to partymen to sink their differences in order to dislodge the BJP from power at the Centre.Addressing a massive workers' meet in the party headquarters here, Sonia tried to infuse new life into party workers. She admitted that factionalism and mutual mudslinging within the party had been responsible for its rout in the state, which had been its fortress for several years.Charging the Kalyan Singh government with failure on all fronts, she also accused the Samajwadi Party and the BJP of having a secret deal. Sonia exhorted partymen to expose the two and work towards attaining the old image of the party, which had been known for safeguarding the interests of a cross-section of people, but had now been shunned by the electorate.``We axed ourselves and in our mutual infighting, ignoredthe people who have been our strength. Now the responsibility for building up the party in the state is in your hands. Go to the people and tell them about the performance of the Congress and failures of BJP Governments both at the Centre and in the state in all spheres, including the Kargil fiasco,'' she said.For the UPCC, Sonia's message proved to be the much-needed impetus to enthuse them and fill them with the confidence that they had been lacking for some time.Sonia also spent nearly six hours meeting party workers at the grassroot level. Incidentally, this was the first time that senior leaders like Arjun Singh, Rajesh Pilot, Motilal Vora, N.D. Tiwari and Sushil Shinde were not allowed to speak first. Instead, party chiefs at district levels were called upon to put forth their views.The state party leaders tried to take maximum advantage of their party chief's visit. In this effort, a visit to the Nadwa-Tul-Ulema, an Islamic institute where revered Muslim leader Ali Mian lives, was includedin her itinerary at the spur of the moment in order to show that the Congress had the welfare of the Muslim community in mind, unlike other parties, especially the Samajwadi Party, which had weaned away the minorities vote bank from the Congress.Sonia also scoffed at the Vajpayee Government for celebrating the withdrawal of Pakistan forces from the Kargil sector. ``Why are they overjoyed? Their failure on all fronts and squabbles with allied parties were responsible for intrusion in Kargil. None will shun them for the folly which saw a number of our jawans sacrificing their lives to the enemy's bullets while the party leaders were sunk deep in corruption,'' she alleged, while highlighting that the Vajpayee Government, despite being a caretaker one, was finalising large deals.
