Sonia Gandhi: Anna should accept ‘our strong Lokpal’

Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday told party MPs that Congress was ready to fight for lokpal and women's bill, reports said. The opposition and Team Anna should accept the government's draft bill, she added.

Congress has fulfilled its poll promises on food security and Lokpal, Sonia Gandhi said.

BJP is yet to reconcile to fact that UPA has got people's confidence and is spreading canards about differences between Congress and government, she said.

Gandhi interacted with party MPs on Wednesday amid challenges galore for the party and the government in the New Year.

Not yielding to Anna Hazare's demands, the government is understood to have decided to keep CBI out of the purview of the proposed Lokpal. The CBI itself had said that it does not want to come under the purview of the Lokpal. To bring the investigating agency under Lokpal’s ambit, amendments will be needed for which the government is not ready, as is being said.

The Congress Parliamentary Party meeting on Wednesday morning was the first such meeting to be addressed by Gandhi in the last few months as the Congress President had skipped the monsoon session in July-August on account of being ill.

Gandhi, who is also UPA chairperson, had gone abroad for surgery for an unspecified ailment at that time.

The CPP meeting is also being held at a time when the lokpal bill is being debated intensely.

She asked the MPs to work hard, expressing hope that the Congress will win the upcoming Assembly polls in five states.