Sonia to have road shows in Haryana

CHANDIGARH, Feb 17 (UNI) Continuing her road shows ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will pay a two-day visit to Haryana beginning February 28 and cover eight parliamentary constituencies in the state.

Talking to reporters, state Congress chief Bhajan Lal said according to the tentative schedule of her tour, Gandhi would start her mass contact programme from Faridabad and pass through Mahendragarh, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sirsa, Sonepat and Karnal constituencies.

There are ten constituencies in Haryana and in the previous Lok Sabha elections Congress drew a blank in the state.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had an alliance in the 1999 elections, shared five seats each.

However, the alliance between the INLD and the BJP had recently broken and the BJP had announced that it would contest the coming elections on its own.

The Haryana Vikas Party of former chief minister Bansi Lal has also clarified that it would go it alone in the polls.

Expressing confidence that the Congress would win all the ten seats in the state, Bhajan Lal said the party needed no alliance with any other party in the state.

Asked whether the Congress would not have an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Haryana, he said if there was a national level alliance with the BSP, it would apply in case of Haryana as well.

To a question, Bhajan Lal said he himself had no intention to contest the parliamentary elections but if the high command wanted him to do so, he would join the fray.

The former chief minister indicated that his son Kuldeep Bishnoi could contest the Lok Sabha elections in case he himself stayed out of contest.

He said the party was yet to finalise its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

On the infighting in the Haryana Congress, he said there were fights in each and every family but the Congressmen would fight the elections unitedly.