BJP and SP two sides of same coin: Congress

They allege that the two parties were "blots" on the country’s democratic and secular heritage for using "devious and deceptive electoral tricks’’ that were communal and unconstitutional.

The Congress portrayed the BJP and the SP as two sides of the same coin, alleging that the two parties were "blots" on the country’s democratic and secular heritage for using "devious and deceptive electoral tricks’’ that were communal and unconstitutional.

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"They want power by hook or by crook and have tried to subvert, distort, mislead, provoke and corrupt the election process with inflammatory material," said spokesman Abhishek Singhvi while referring to their controversial CDs.

Confident that the electorate would se through their nefarious designs, he said that the sober voter would be BJP and SP’s collective opponent.

He did not agree with the interpretation that the string of recent electoral defeats of the party, including its setback in Delhi, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttarakhand, reflected the UPA’s failure to contain the BJP. "Victories or defeats are part of the electoral process," he said, adding that cyclical anti-incumbency was a partial explanation for the recent outcomes. "But that will not shake us from our basic principle of not creating divides. No one can doubt the Congress’s sincerity in fighting communalism," he added. He also emphasized that fighting communalism is an individual act of the party; it has to be reflected in its history. In this context, he said that the Prevention of Communal Violence bill is expected to come up in the second half of the Budget session in April-May.

He dismissed Uma Bharati’s decision to pull out her candidates from the UP polls as part of the "antics of a drama troupe."