Congress should be ready for general election battle: Sonia Gandhi, PM

Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday asked partymen to get ready for the battle for winning the 2014 general elections.

Addressing a Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting here, Gandhi blamed lack of discipline and unity as factors for the party's loss in the recently held assembly polls in the four states of Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Maintaing that there is no reason to despair, she urged party leaders and workers to accept the fresh challenge before them, and make efforts to convince the people about the policies, programmes and achievements of the Congress Party and the UPA Government.

Gandhi also said it is a solemn duty to serve the people of the country to the best of ability.

Criticising the opposition, and mainly the BJP, without naming it, she asked her partymen to strongly speak out against their ideology of divisiveness and sectarianism.

In his address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the recent assembly election results were deeply disappointing, but party cadres should not give away to despair in the run-up to the general elections.

He said the recent electoral results were not an indication of what will happen in the general elections in April-May 2014.

He said general election would be fought on issues of national importance, and added that the Congress Party would be judged by its responses to national issues.

The Congress party also distributed a booklet among its MPs, depicting the achievements of UPA Government for propagating it among the electorate more effectively.