Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday gave a clarion call to party leaders to completely sink their differences and work unitedly to bring the party back to power in the State.
Her call assumes significance in the backdrop of the demand made by a section of leaders, to change the party leadership in the State, with barely six months left for the Assembly election.
The visit of the UPA chairperson to the State could not have come at a better time than now when the ruling BJP is facing a plethora of problems.
Addressing a Congress workers’ convention organised by the Indian National Congress and the KPCC here at Nehru Maidan, Sonia said party’s grassroot workers should not suffer because of the differences among the party leaders.
“Whenever we were united, we swept the elections. There is a need to recapture the sprit of unity and solidarity, which the party workers had shown way back in 1977, to give a political rebirth to former prime minister Indira Gandhi,” she said. Gandhi said corruption is a disease which is spreading its wings all over.
Corruption hurt the poor and ordinary citizens. It was the UPA government which had passed RTI legislation, and through RTI, several scandals have come to the light.
“We genuinely want to curb corruption in the country. We wanted to pass Lokapal Bill.
However, it was the BJP which stopped the bill from getting passed in the Rajya Sabha,” she said.
Gandhi said the Karnataka government was steeped in corruption. Similar was the situation in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The people will deliver their verdict against the corrupt State government in the next election, she added.
She said communal forces were destroying the social fabric of Karnataka, and called upon party workers to work hard and defeat the communal forces active in the State.
On the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, Gandhi said that the State government too had a responsibility. The Congress-ruled states had raised the cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders from six to nine. Why has the BJP government in the State failed to raise the cap, she asked.
Gandhi also defended the UPA government’s decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail sector, saying by doing so “we are ensuring a direct link between the farmers and the market and also enable consumers to buy at lower prices.”
Gandhi said FDI in retail would not only ensure better prices for farmers but also create jobs and new infrastructure.The Congress chief read out an oath for the Bal Seva Dal members on the occasion. Union Ministers Veerappa Moily, Mallikharjuna Kharge and K H Muniyappa, KPCC President Dr G Parameshwara, Opposition leader in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and others were present.
Sonia also visited the Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara temple in the city and inaugurated the centenary celebrations, Mangalore Dasara and the elevator at the temple premises. She called upon people to uphold the concept of one caste, one religion and one world, propagated by Brahmashri Narayanaguru, who was the driving force behind the Kudroli temple.