Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appealed to all ‘like-minded’ political parties in the country to join hands so as to ensure that the BJP doesn’t return to power during the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held in April-May next year.

BJP is about to complete its 4th year in office in April after riding to power in 2014 thanks to the ‘Modi wave’ which swept the entire country and ascended the BJP to power at the Centre on its own majority. The fiscal budget for 2018-19 presented last week by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (last ‘full’ budget of the BJP regime) hasn’t been welcomed by the people though it hasn’t got any new tax.

Resentment among people is high that the BJP didn’t bother to fulfill its pre-2014 poll promises; also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment on ‘selling pakoras’ as a means of employment hasn’t gone down well with many unemployed youths. It is in this backdrop that the governing council of the Congress Party met yesterday in New Delhi under the leadership of party’s former president Sonia Gandhi.

Addressing the meeting, Sonia said she would campaign during next year’s Lok Sabha polls along with other party leaders. Addressing her son and party president Rahul Gandhi as ‘president’, Sonia appealed to like-minded parties – which wanted to throw the BJP out of power – to come together to work for ousting the BJP.

“Only a Congress regime can guarantee a secular, democratic, tolerant India with admirable economic growth. Let’s team up together to defeat the NDA,” she said.