Sonia no match to Vajpayee: Shiromani Akali Dal

The Shiromani Akali Dal has said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was no match to Vajpayee for the top Prime Ministerial post.

Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi was 'no match' to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the top post, Shiromani Akali Dal said on Tuesday.

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Criticising Gandhi, Badal said "without proper experience, one cannot work on any post," and claimed workers may have some commitment to their parties but masses in general find Vajpayee as the best Prime Minister.

Stating there was no shift in SAD agenda for the Lok Sabha polls, Badal said "since the elections are for the Lok Sabha, the NDA constituents have agreed on the Common Minimum Programme."

Claiming SAD'S position was now better as compared to the 1999 Lok Sabha elections when the party won two of the nine seats it contested, SAD chief said, "Hatred is there against Amarinder Singh Government as all sections of the society are unhappy and overwhelming number of Congressmen also hate Amarinder Singh".

Badal did not make clear the stand on whether the SAD would support the BJP nominee Satya Pal Jain or INLD nominee Harmohan Dhawan for Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.

"With INLD Chief Om Prakash Chautala we have personal and political relations and in hour of crisis he has helped us", he added.

"It was clear that Dhanola was being funded by the ruling Congress for political interests," he said adding "We are exploring legal action against Dhanola for the defamatory ads being inserted by him in different dailies".