MOUNT ABU/ NEW DELHI, 10 November — The main opposition Congress party said yesterday it could join ranks with other political groups to try and oust the Hindu extremist-led government from riot-torn Gujarat state in upcoming polls.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said the Dec. 12 assembly elections in the western state could also impact on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government, which, like the Gujarat administration, is headed by the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The Gujarat election is a challenge for us and for all those who believe that the road to progress is not that of violence,” Sonia said at the end of a conclave of chief ministers from Congress-ruled states.
“We are open to working with like-minded secular parties in order to defeat communal forces (in Gujarat).”
More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, have died in communal riots in Gujarat since February.
Human rights groups have accused the BJP state government of turning a blind eye to the vigilante violence.
“We are going to Gujarat with a message that progress is only possible in an atmosphere of peace and amity,” Sonia said. “The Gujarat election is important and it certainly could have an effect on central government,” she said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi dissolved the state assembly in July and asked for fresh polls, in what analysts say in a bid to cash in on Hindu sentiments generated by the religious riots.
The Congress has in the past two years scored a series of victory in state elections, most recently in violence-torn Kashmir. Gujarat is the largest state governed by the BJP, and a Congress victory there may boost its position ahead of federal elections due in 2004.
Sonia also announced that her 116-year-old party would cobble more alliances to oust the BJP or its partners from other states where provincial elections are now round the corner.
“We are not opposed to working with like-minded secular forces in coming state assembly elections. Our main aim is to do all we can to strengthen the Congress so that we come to power on our own,” she said. She called on the chief ministers of more than a dozen states now governed by the Congress to tone up the party for the national elections to the 545-seat Parliament.
She also side-stepped questions on whether she would succeed Vajpayee in case the Congress swept the general elections.
Sonia, a daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and widow of slain ex-Premier Rajiv Gandhi, also accused Vajpayee’s government of discriminating against Congress states in handing out central drought-relief aid.
“They are playing politics in an area where they should not. People who are suffering are the same, wherever they are,” she said.
