Sushma attacks Cong

Sushma Swaraj said that Congress has no right to ask as to who will be the next PM after Vajpayee, as it has failed to declare its prime ministerial candidate.

Targeting Congress for asking BJP to name the leader who would take the reign after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, union minister and BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said that party has no right to ask the question as it has failed to declare its prime ministerial candidate.

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"On the one hand they have not even named their prime ministerial candidate and on the other they are keen to know who will lead after Vajpayee," she told reporters at a press conference here.

Attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi, she said "Her wish to lead the nation only on the basis of the fact that she is late Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law and Rajiv Gandhi's widow, would not materialise".

Claiming that NDA would get a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha polls, Swaraj said the results of exit polls have proved to be a "blessing in disguise for BJP".

"Knowing that we were comfortably placed, our party workers might have taken things easy earlier, but after the results of exit polls, they became more active and people also became more cautious to ensure that NDA is voted back to power," she said.

"In Chandigarh it is a no-contest and BJP's Satya Pal Jain would win comfortably," she said. the reported "confusion" on Shiromani Akali Dal's support to Jain has been removed by SAD supremo Parkash Singh Badal, she added.

"I talked to Badal and he expressed his unhappiness on a faction of SAD not supporting Jain but he assured me that his party was backing us fully," she said. Other top leaders of SAD including late GS Tohra, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Bibi Jagir Kaur were also with BJP, she said.