Smriti Irani questions Sonia's promise to make Punjab No one

Phagwara, Feb 8 (UNI) Noted TV star and BJP leader Smriti Irani today decided to play the "saas" (mother-in-law) to Ms Sonia Gandhi, scolding the Congress president for promising to the electorate that her party would make Punjab the number one state in the country.

''During her election campaign in Maharashtra (assembly polls), Ms Gandhi had made a similar promise to the voters of that state and now she is doing the same here'', she said while addressing an election rally in support of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP candidate Swarana Ram here.

''The Congress president seems to be in the habit of making such promises in every state she visits,'' Ms Irani, famous for her portrayal of Tulsi in the serial "Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" said.

She appealed to the voters to beware of such misleading statements.

Later talking to newspersons, she expressed her support for 33 percent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and in state assemblies. ''However political parties prefer the criteria of winnability while allotting party tickets to candidates in elections'' she said when pointed out that very few women candidates were contesting the polls in Punjab.

At her election rally, the national executive member of BJP alleged that law and order situation had deteriorated in the last five years of Congress rule. ''Jungle rule was prevailing in a prosperous state, where women cannot dare to walk freely in the streets and bazaars of towns and villages,'' she claimed.

The drug and land mafia was ruling Punjab, she alleged. The farming community in Punjab had been neglected, as a result there had been a rise in the number of suicides by farmers in the state, she added.

On the second day of her hectic election tour of the state, she made a passionate appeal to the Punjabi women to come out in large numbers of February 13 and vote for the SAD-BJP candidates.

UNI