Sonia predicts Cong revival, lashes out at Modi for ‘bluff’

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 13

Until Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav riled her with his “Narendra Modi should be PM again” remarks in the LS, UPA chief Sonia Gandhi was wearing a new air of confidence around her.

Sonia exuded this air in the morning when, while addressing the last Congress parliamentary party meeting of the 16th LS, she powered the hope of Congress’ revival warning colleagues against complacency and asking them to stay united.

“Unity and self-sacrifice are vital all times, they are of even greater importance today,” she admonished them, saying the Congress’ electoral debacle of 2014 was a one off and that history will not repeat itself.

Her morning address to 45 MPs — the lowest Congress has ever had in the LS — was a war cry as she slammed the BJP government for its “bluff, bluster and intimidation”, urging MPs to fight back. Describing the five-year term of 16th LS a time of “unprecedented economic stress and social strain”, Sonia hailed the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, telling the gathering that “he worked tirelessly, took the BJP head on, mobilised lakhs of Congress workers and the party won in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and MP, believed to be BJP strongholds”.