By IANS
New Delhi : Hitting back at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani for his remarks that his poor relations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi had affected his equations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the ruling party said the opposition leader had never made efforts to reach out to both leaders.
“All you need is to reach out to them. I think both the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi are not the ones who would spurn such a move (from Advani),” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
“It takes two to forge a bond,” Singhvi told a television channel.
Admitting lack of communication with Sonia Gandhi, Advani Thursday said this was hurting his equations with Manmohan Singh. “It is unfortunate that I have no communication with Sonia Gandhi. Poor relations with her affect my equations with the prime minister,” Advani told TV news channel Times Now, hoping his ties with her would improve.
But Singhvi said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha had never made an effort to reach out to the prime minister.
“If Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh could have working relations with Advani when they were in the opposition, why is the reverse not possible now?” Singhvi asked.
Asked what he discussed with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi when they met briefly at the airport here in December, Advani said: “Rahul asked for my assessment of the national situation. He just heard my views and did not react.”
Advani added that while he favoured holding parliamentary and state elections simultaneously, the next Lok Sabha polls might be held only in 2009 as scheduled and not earlier.
Advani’s comments came a day after his autobiography, “My Country My Life”, was launched.