By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress party asserted Thursday that it was confident of finishing as the winner in the Lok Sabha elections ending May 13.
Congress general secretary M. Veerappa Moily told a news conference here that the party’s ties with its pre-election allies was “very firm” and that a Congress-led government was the need of the hour.
“The Congress-UPA (United Progressive Alliance) partnership is very firm. Our priority is to firm up our partners,” he said as the penultimate round of the nationwide election was in progress.
He said the alliance with most Congress partners in UPA was “very firm, very concrete and we are going to march forward”.
Moily said there was no way the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would gain more Lok Sabha seats and that the Congress would finish as “the strongest party” in the 545-member Lok Sabha.
Suggesting that only the Congress could provide governance, he said: “The people of this country want stability, growth, development, security for all.”
He denied that Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had made overtures to the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) when he praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar two days ago.
Gandhi’s comments “don’t mean we are making overtures. We know very well that they (JD-U) are with NDA (National Democratic Alliance). We will never make overtures”.
He said the Congress valued its relationship with pre-poll partners Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
He reminded reporters that RJD and LJP leaders Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan had repeatedly voiced their loyalty to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.