In the city to inaugurate a day-long seminar on `Water and Agriculture Campaign: Possibilities of Development and Problems', Patel told reporters at an impromptu press conference on Tuesday that the BJP-headed Government, which had been doing well, was toppled because of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's ambition to become prime minister.

Asked on what basis the party expected to win votes, Patel said, ``It's clean image. A series of scandals marked the Congress government; during the 13 months the BJP was in power, there wasn't a single such instance''.

The people of Gujarat had been hurt by the manner in which the Central government had been toppled, Patel said, claiming that only the BJP and its allies and not the Congress or the other parties could provide a stable government. The BJP had never ``surrendered'' to its partners, he maintained.

Asked about the differences among State-level party members in general and Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal Singh's statements in particular, the chief minister said that in democracy everybody had a right to speak. ``But Singh should not speak publicly. He should make his representations in the party meetings instead,'' he said, adding that Singh's suggestions had been accepted. About the increasing discontent among BJP councillors in Vadodara about surreptitious changes in the civic works list, Patel said he would not like to interfere on the issue. ``I do not know anything about it,'' he said.