Advani fires broadside at Sonia

Indore, July 10 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and former Deputy Premier L K Advani today said that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi desired to occupy the Prime Minister's post but failed as President A P J Abdul Kalam had done the nation a great service by posing a few questions to the Congress supremo.

''Ms Gandhi could not become the Premier but the country got a rubber-stamp Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who directed a process that sullied the prestige of the posts of President, Premier and also the Election Commission. Dr Singh is the weakest prime minister we have ever had,'' the senior BJP leader said here while inaugurating a two-day Abhyas Varg of saffron party MPs and MLAs.

Among those present were former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, Madhya Pradesh in-charge Ananth Kumar, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his predecessors Babulal Gaur and Kailash Joshi, state unit President Narendra Singh Tomar, his deputy Anil Dave and General Secretary (Organisation) Makhan Singh.

''A certain EC official's conduct is that of loyalty to a certain party and the future President will be a rubber stamp,'' Mr Advani alleged, while pointing out that political pressure and other reasons led to the making of weak prime ministers who lacked decision-making capacity.

''Ch Charan Singh, H D Deve Gowda and Chandrashekhar were such premiers. In the history of political parties, the Jana Sangh and BJP will be credited. Despite the fact that the target of a two-party system has not been attained for strengthening democracy, a bipolar democratic system is in place due to the BJP's style of functioning and workers,'' Mr Advani claimed.

BJP President Rajnath Singh would lower the curtains on the Abhyas Varg tomorrow.

UNI