Advani challeges UPA Govt for mid-term elections

Amritsar, Feb 4 (UNI) Throwing a challenge to the UPA-government, former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today claimed that the NDA was strong enough to defeat the UPA, if a snap Lok Sabha poll was called in the country.

''Let the Central government seek a fresh mandate now, we will defeat the UPA,'' he said, while addressing a series of rallies in support of BJP candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is contesting the Amritsar Parliamentary by-election and the party's candidates for the assembly polls to be held on February 13.

Citing the excellent performance of the BJP in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the local bodies elections in UP, he claimed that the policies of the UPA-government had made it unpopular in the country. In this context he cited the failure of the government to control the prices of essential commodities include 'atta' and 'dal'.

Appealing to the Punjabis to oust the Congress government of an ''arrogant raja'', he predicted that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance would be voted to power in Punjab. The present Punjab government had failed miserably on all fronts and the time had come for the people to replace it with their ''vote power'', he added.

''Farmers, students, doctors, teachers and traders were beaten up and maltreated in the five years of the Raja's rule'', he alleged underlining that such a government had no right to remain in power.

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