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Congress looking to join hands with NCP, SP in Gujarat

The Congress party is working out political strategies with the Nationalist Congress Party, Samajwadi Party, Leftists and other parties to keep away the Bharatiya Janata Party from assuming power in Gujarat in the assembly election, All India Congress Committee general secretary Kamalnath said on Wednesday.

"It is necessary to keep communal forces out of power for which strategies need to be drawn," Kamalnath, party incharge for the state, said before proceeding to Bharuch to address a public rally.

Regarding conditional support by the SP, Kamalnath said, "It is for them to decide whether they are interested in defeating communal forces in the country."

The SP had earlier said it would lend support to the Congress in Gujarat if the latter helped them in toppling the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh.

With Lok Sabha polls due in 2004, the Congress would prefer to discuss strategies with non-NDA parties, Kamalnath said.

Describing Narendra Modi's Gujarat Gaurav Yatra as a sarkari yatra [government yatra] where 'official machinery was being misused', Kamalnath said the chief minister had no right to take out such a yatra as the BJP had done nothing during its four-and-half-year rule.

"Modi must stop the yatra as it is dividing people of the state on communal lines," Kamalnath said.

He demanded imposition of the President's rule in the state after October 6 since there was no constitutional provision for continuing with a caretaker government after the expiry of six months period between two assembly sittings.

Gujarat Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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