ANAND: The Congress-I_ president Rajiv Gandhi stressed the Need for preserving the unity and integrity of the country.

Addressing an election rally Gandhi said his party if voted to power would work towards healing the wounds in Punjab Jammu and Kashmir and Assam where separatist elements were active largely due to the “wrong Policies pursued by the previous government at the center”.

Gandhi said the first task of his party would be to bring the economy back on the rails and advocated controls to rationalize industrial development.

Paying compliments to the people of Gujarat for their role in the development of the cooperative movement in the state he said the pattern would be taken to other parts in the country as well.

He said if his party was voted to power it would chalk out strategies and plans for the welfare of women farmers and landless laborers.

Gandhi reiterated that his party would have no truck with the BJP either before or after the poll. “I am sure my party will win the majority to form a government at the center” he said.

However Rajiv Gandhi said Thursday the BJP will not win a single seat in southern and caste Uttar Pradesh in the coming general elections.

Addressing a public meeting in the Chandni Chowk constituency in the capital Gandhi ridiculed the Bharatiya Janata party’s (BJP) claim that it would get absolute majority.

Saying that it was “mere propaganda” by the BJP he claimed that states like Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh were under “a Congress-I wave”. The BJP in these states would hardly manage lo secure 15 to 20 seats he said.

“Where from will they get 250 seats?” Gandhi asked and said the BJP might raise its strength from 86 to 100 “but it may well go down to 40 also”.

Gandhi said the BJP could win 86 seats in 1989 despite the fact that it collected only 12% of votes because it had seat adjustments with the Janata Dal and the CPM. MORADABAD: The Congress-I will not take the help of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a government at the center party president and former premier Rajiv Gandhi said.

Addressing a large public meeting in this brass township of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh Gandhi criticized the former National Front government for having supported the BJP and helped it gain strength.

He said the BJP had improved its tally from eight per cent of votes and two seats in 1984 to 12% of votes and 86 seats in 1989.

Gandhi said former premier V.P Singh’s Janata Dal and its leaders had tried to gain political mileage by announcing their decision to implement the Mandal commission report reserving nearly 50% of jobs available in the government sector for people from scheduled castes scheduled tubes and other back ward classes.

To counter this BJP took the “Mandir” issue and was responsible for creating a communal situation throughout the country he said.

Gandhi said Congress-I had always opposed the BJP and only parties like Janata Dal supported it in 1977 and 1989.

He exhorted the people to vote for his party as it could provide a stable government. “Misrule by non-Congress had created instability in the Indian polity Gandhi said.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 24, 1991