Who’s afraid of Gujarat

The Congress today sought to send across the message that it was ‘‘not worried’’ by the party’s debacle in the Guja...

The Congress today sought to send across the message that it was ‘‘not worried’’ by the party’s debacle in the Gujarat elections and will counter any attempts by the BJP to replicate the ‘‘Modiline’’ in states ruled by it.

After unfurling the party flag on the occasion of the 118th Foundation Day of the party at the All India Congress Committee office in the Capital, party president Sonia Gandhi brushed aside suggestions that the Gujarat elections worried her. ‘‘I am not worried at all but disappointed…We are ready to face future challenges,’’ she said.

YATRA HURT HINDUTVA: VHP

Pune: The VHP has said it would not hesitate to have a confrontation with the Centre on the Ram Temple issue. On how the BJP could agree to their demand when its allies would not support them, VHP international working president Ashok Singhal said: ‘‘We are committed to Hindutva so we will not think twice about a confrontation.’’ He also said Dy PM L.K. Advani’s rath yatra had damaged the cause of Hindutva. Singhal said before the rath yatra, people from different parties used to come to their platform. He said: ‘‘Rath yatra se andolan ek paksha ka ban gaya (It made our agitation a one party affair)’’. — PTI

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Speaking in Kolkata, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee asserted that the BJP’s call to replicate the Gujarat experiment would be dealt through administrative measures: ‘‘The administration in Congress-ruled states will take action if the saffron party tries to whip up communal passions in the name of the Gujarat experiment.”

Speaking in Jaipur, Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, one of the states going to polls next year, demanded that the Prime Minister ‘‘repent for the misdeeds’’ of his party in Gujarat as it had returned to power by ‘‘playing the politics of corpses’’. ‘‘Gujarat witnessed a naked dance of communalism led by CM Narendra Modi. But Vajpayee had no remorse and even went to Ahmedabad to pat Modi’s back,’’ he said.

Congress leaders in Himachal Pradesh, another state going to elections soon, felt that there would be no impact of Gujarat on the state. Party spokesman in the state Rangila Ram Rao pointed out that the BJP leadership at the Centre and in the state seemed to be oblivious of the stark fact that the Congress was ruling in 15 states after defeating communal forces.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress alleged that the BJP was planning to revive its Hindutva agenda and chart out a blueprint during the coming ‘Magh Mela’ on January 14 in Allahabad.

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UP Congress Committee president Arun Kumar Singh ‘Munna’ said: ‘‘We will make the public aware of their agenda and make all possible efforts to fail them in their plans.’’ He pointed out that the BJP’s efforts during the shiladaan plan in March this year had failed to whip up communal frenzy.

In Tamil Nadu, the Congress made the possibility of an alliance with the DMK conditional to the party quitting the National Democratic Alliance. Stating that the possibility would be examined, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee working president E.V.K.S. Elangova added that as long as the DMK was part of the BJP-led alliance at the Centre, he did not consider it a secular party.