Ahmedabad, June 08: BJP president Venkaiah Naidu today criticised the Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her recent statement describing the BJP-led Central government's achievement as 'khokhla'(hollow) and called for a national debate on it. "Soniaji wants to know what is the progress of the nation under BJP's five year regime. But I want to ask her what is the progress of the nation when the Congress was in power for almost 47 years since independence", he told reporters referring to Sonia Gandhi's criticism of the Centre's performance.

Poking fun at the Congress, Naidu said: "Now that general elections are round the corner their slogans are 'Congress ka haath garib ke saath' while for 47 years it was 'Congress ka haath amir ke saath,' in the polls "BJP will sweep while Congress will weep", Naidu said.

The BJP president also said the party would achieve a major breakthrough in elections in Mizoram and the party's focus was on the North East region.

Bureau Report