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SP, BJP criticise Congress's Pachmarhi declaration

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today expressed unhappiness over the Congress' Pachmarhi declaration, saying iit should have concentrated on dislodging the Vajpayee government rather than trying to distance itself from regional parties.

Addressing a press conference in Amritsar, he said the Congress seemed to be more worried about regaining its status in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

''The Pachmarhi convention has conveyed the impression that my party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which together have a mass base in both these northern states, are its (Congress) main worries'', he observed.

Yadav said the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha was willing to extend support to the Congress in the event of fall of the BJP-led coalition at the Centre. ''They (the Congress) should come forward. Only then will we make a move to extend support,'' he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party too today described as a "total failure", the Congress conclave at Pachmarhi, saying it had neither demonstrated the party's cohesion nor pinned down the BJP on any issue.

BJP vice-president K L Sharma said the meeting was dominated by Congress defectors like Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and Sharad Pawar. In fact, he added, it projected ideological confusion among the Congressmen.

Instead of entertaining hopes of destabilising the BJP-led coalition or stepping in to fill the vacuum in case the government fell, the Congress should now accept that the Vajpayee government had come to stay, Sharma said. "We will not give any chance to them and the government will complete its full term."

He said while the Congress used to boast of its economic reforms, the conclave had a divided opinion on Dr Manmohan Singh's economic policies.

The other point the party boasted of was stability and on this count too, the BJP leader said, it had failed when it had a full majority. Narasimha Rao who had provided a stable government was rejected and cornered by the Congress itself, Sharma added.

The success of the government's diplomacy at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting at Durban further left the Congress "completely disarmed" in its attempt to discredit the BJP, Sharma said.

The spokesman challenged the Congress to extend its fight against communalism to caste factor. The Congress, he said, was shy of coming out against caste politics in view of its new found allies such as the RJD.

UNI

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