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Congress rules out alliance for Gujarat election

The Congress party on Wednesday ruled out any alliance for the Gujarat assembly election, but said it was not averse to seat adjustments with 'like-minded' political parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the December 12 polls.

"We will not form an alliance for this election, but there will be some seat adjustments," AICC general secretary in charge of Gujarat, Kamal Nath, said.

Meanwhile, the party started the process of selecting candidates with the steering committee holding a meeting in New Delhi.

Senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Shankersinh Vaghela and state Congress Legislature Party leader Amar Singh Chaudhary attended the meeting, besides Kamal Nath.

The party has already decided to re-nominate all the 50 plus MLAs in the state.

Stating that talks were on with 'like-minded' political parties, including the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Lok Janshakti Party headed by Ram Vilas Paswan, Vaghela said it was 'not a must' for these allies to put up candidates 'if they are serious about defeating BJP'.

Vaghela said the party was strong enough in Gujarat to take on the BJP alone, but would like the cooperation of these political parties to defeat the BJP and appealed to them to extend their resources in doing so.

Asked about the JD-U and the Samata Party decision to contest on their own, Vaghela said, "They cannot fool the people anymore. They have to come out of NDA if they want to take on the BJP and its policies."

Gujarat Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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