Coalition doesn't mean losing political space forever: Sonia

Talking tough, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said that being in a coalition does not mean the party sacrificing its independent political space forever.

Talking tough, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said that being in a coalition does not mean the party sacrificing its independent political space forever.

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"Coalition means positive support from all sides. But working in a coalition does not mean that we lose our political space forever," Gandhi said in her address at the All India Congress Committee session in New Delhi.

Gandhi's observation comes in the backdrop of pulls and pressures within the UPA coalition on various issues, particularly the Indo-US nuclear deal.

While accepting that coalition was a political challenge, she asserted that Congress workers should strive to bring back the original glory that the party enjoyed earlier.

Ahead of elections in several states next year and Lok Sabha polls in 2009, Gandhi said that anti-incumbency was not something that was bound to happen or something which could not be avoided.

Gandhi noted that the outcome of some recent assembly elections has revealed that the sympathy of people towards the party has not been translated into votes. "This was true in the case of Uttar Pradesh" where, she said, there was a need to revive the party from the grassroot level.