Sonia urges voters to choose between two ideologies

Mandvi, Gujarat, Dec 8 (UNI) Charging the BJP government in Gujarat with betraying the trust of people, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the voters in the state to choose between ideologies of ''fear and illusion'' and ''communal harmony and development''.

''There are two ideologies before you. One stands for creating fear and illusion and the other for communal harmony and development. If you want communal harmony and development, then vote for the Congress,'' she said, addressing a rally at tribal-dominated Mandvi in Surat district ahead of the first phase of polling on December 11.

''The Congress believes in taking everybody along, in the philosophy of 'bhaichara and sadbhavna' (brotherhood and communal harmony). Though the BJP likes to talk about development, it has no concern either for the farmers or tribals,'' Ms Gandhi noted.

''There is a backlog of vacancies in government jobs for SC/STs.

The state government has closed down the forest cooperatives,'' she said, adding the BJP makes lots of promises and announcements, which later turn out to be just hollow.

On BJP's criticism that during the Congress-led UPA government, many poor have become ineligible to get concessions, marked for the people below poverty line, the ruling coalition's Chairperson said it was during the NDA regime that the BPL policy was reviewed.

''Most of the development in Gujarat was due to the policies of the previous Congress governments and the hard work by the people of the state,'' she said.

''You should ask the BJP government to account for the money it received from the Centre for development works,'' Ms Gandhi said.

UNI