No differnces between PM and Sonia: Cong

New Delhi, July 10 (UNI) Emphatically denying the rumours about differences between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi,the Congress today said the relations between the two are one of mutual respect and faith.

''Both the Prime Minister and the Congress President are supplementary to each other, respect each other's views and consult each other,'' Congress Spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi said.

Pulling up the BJP for propagating that the Prime Minister put on hold disinvestment proposals under pressure from the DMK, Mr Chaturvedi wondered how the BJP had forgotten the differences between top BJP leaders and the occasions when the BJP-led NDA regime had roll back its decisions under pressure from NDA partners.

He recalled that during the NDA regime, there was tug of war almost daily between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy Mr L K Advani. NDA Convenor George Fernandes had once threated to withdraw support of the Samat Party in 2002. ''But we never levelled any allegation of the kind the BJP is now doing,'' he noted.

Mr Chaturvedi also recalled that under pressure from Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik and the then Union Minister Uma Bharati, the process of disinvestment of NALCO had to be stopped. There were exchange of hot words between then Petroeum Minister Ram Naik and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie over the disinvestment of BPCL.

Underlining that a coallition government is always run on the basis of a Common Minimum Programme, the spokesman said differences may arise among the constituents. ''It was but natural but these are always sorted out trhrough talks,'' he noted.

He expressed the hope that differences arising out of the disinvestment would be sorted out amicably through talks among the allies.

UNI YS VD HS1854