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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 24
Alarmed by the rise of BJP, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has said it is time to revive the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The party urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take lead in that direction.
It said Sonia should bring erstwhile UPA partners together by repeating the aggressive political outreach she exhibited in 2004 by personally visiting top political leaders and laying ground for the formation of UPA ahead of the Lok Sabha elections that year. The party said the Congress and no regional outfit (read the Nitish Kumart-led JDU) will drive any anti-BJP national coalition ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“After the 2014 Lok Sabha defeat, the UPA has virtually become non-existent. Time is ripe to revive the coalition as the force against the BJP. The Congress being the largest component of the erstwhile ruling combine must take lead in the matter. Sonia Gandhi had, in 2004, visited the houses of top leaders to bring them together. She should take the same initiative again,” NCP leader Tariq Anwar said.
The NCP leader, also a Lok Sabha member, batted for continuation of Sonia as the Congress president amid demands of elevation of Rahul Gandhi within the party. He said Sonia’s withdrawal would be disastrous at this time.
“We agree to what Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu says. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is a great cementing force for her party. She should continue as the party president. If she withdraws in this time of crisis, it will send wrong and adverse signals. That should not happen and I don’t see it happening either,” said Anwar. The NCP is one of the components of the UPA.
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