Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Exuding confidence that the Congress will do well in the assembly polls next year, party chief Sonia Gandhi Wednesday asked her MPs not to be defeatist as “we have every reason to be satisfied with what we have achieved”.

She, however, confessed that the party and the government were not doing enough to propagate the accomplishments of the last seven years of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule.

“I cannot see any reason for us to be defeatist. What seems to be lacking is a more effective effort by both the party and the government in communicating and propagating our accomplishments,” Gandhi told Congress MPs at a parliamentary party meeting here.

The opposition “may be loud, but it is opportunistic as logic and merit are lost in their obstructionist tactics”, said the UPA chairperson in her speech, a copy of which is with IANS.

She asked party MPs to fight the forces “out to destabilise us”.

“Forces who never accepted the verdict of 2004 (elections in favour of the UPA) and never reconciled themselves to the renewed mandate we got in 2009,” she said.

Mentioning about the elections in five states due next year, Gandhi said there was a “definite sentiment in our favour” in Uttarakhand and Punjab. “I am confident we will return to power (there).”

She admitted that while the Congress was facing “odds” in Uttar Pradesh, “there is growing support for us”.

“The challenge is to convert that support into votes on polling days,” she said, asking those representing Uttar Pradesh to “work hard”.

“In Manipur and Goa, where we are in government, our achievements these past years give us the confidence of securing a renewed mandate.”