New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday disheartened those who were prophesying an early General Elections after she asked a key forum of her party to "prepare for the Lok Sabha polls next year."
Addressing the General Body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, the Congress supremo didn't drop any hints about the possibility early polls.
She told state party unit bosses and MPs only to start preparing for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Assembly polls would be held in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, she reminded the MPs and leaders present.
Among those who attended the meeting were Dr Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Dr Karan Singh.
Mrs Gandhi also asked the party leaders to hardsell the populist middle-class, farmer and minority-friendly Budget to their constituencies.
The Rs 60,000-crore farm loan waiver announced in the Union Budget had been seen as the sounding of the poll bugle by the UPA.
But Sonia Gandhi didn't seem to show any urgency to go for polls sometime soon.
''Inevitably, we have also to start preparing for the Lok Sabha polls next year. We will go into these polls with an outstanding record of achievements, both in terms of government programmes and of legislation enacted. These achievements should earn for us the trust and mandate of the people once again. These achievements give us a firm sense of self-confidence to take on our political opponents," she said.
In her speech, the Congress supremo heaped praise on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the 'dignified and brilliant' manner in which he had taken on the BJP in Parliament for its false and malicious propaganda.
She specifically referred to the manner in which Dr Singh 'completely demolished' all arguments of the BJP leaders in Parliament while replying to the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address on February 5.
''I am sure all of you who were present will agree with me that he has provided us with powerful arguments to take on the BJP and its false and malicious propaganda," she said.
Showering encomiums on Dr Singh, Gandhi said: ''This is the confident, positive, fact-filled approach, we must all adopt in our own speeches and campaigns."
She said the party planned to hold rallies in all states similar to the public meeting organised in Delhi on March 9 and asked the MPs to take active part in them and go ahead with such meetings in all the district headquarters.
Referring to the reverses suffered in the assembly polls in the North-East, she said: "The simple lesson is that we need much harder work and meticulous preparation, much more careful selection of our candidates and strategies, much greater unity and discipline."
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