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"Sonia Gandhi's decision will give Congress edge over rivals"
PTI
MUMBAI, January 4: Sonia Gandhi's decision to campaign for the Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls will make a world of difference giving the party an edge over their rivals, former union home minister SB Chavan has said."I expect a two to three per cent swing in votes in favour of the Congress due to Sonia factor. This will make a world of difference giving the Congress an edge over the BJP and other rivals," he said. Sonia's plunge into active politics would prove to be a unifying factor for the Congress with partymen not taking any precipitate action, Chavan said. Asked if her decision to campaign would make the Jain Commission's interim report a major poll issue, the senior congress leader said "definitely, if there is a full discussion on it." "But it is strange there is shying away from such an exercise." The AIADMK president and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha has prepared the ground for "her own undoing" by allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the formidable anti-brahmin
forces in Tamil Nadu would swing towards the DMK, Chavan said. "BJP is supposed to be a brahmin party and since Jayalalitha herself is a brahmin, all the sympathy wave in her favour because of harassment by the DMK regime, would be lost," he addded. He reiterated that the AIADMK had "thrown away a golden opportunity" to cash in on a sympathy wave by forging a tie-up with the BJP. Asked why Congress did not strike an alliance with the AIADMK, Chavan said "actually it was a matter of taking her (Jaya) for granted and Vijay Bhaskar Reddy assumed that his initial feelers had been accepted." "Jaya is a very egoistic person and needs to be pampered, if somebody from congress had been in touch with her the outcome would have been different," he noted.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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