Patna, Mar 04: The Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani's proposed 'Bharat Uday Rathyatra' is an effort to push AB Vajpayee out of the race for prime ministership and establish himself as a strong candidate for the post, the senior Congress leader, Salman Khurshid, said on Thursday.
"The sole motive of Advani's rathyatra is to establish himself as a strong candidate for the prime minister's post," Khurshid, a member of the Congress Working Committee, told reporters in Patna.
Khurshid alleged that the Union Government had spent roughly Rs 250 crore to Rs 300 crore in the name of 'India shinning' campaign and asked Advani to justify this expenditure to the people during his yatra.

Countering the NDA's slogan that the country has risen to greater heights during its four-and-a-half-year rule, the Congress leader said that India had risen with the construction of Bhakra dam, green revolution, independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan and astronaut Rakesh Sharma's going to space and all this happened during the Congress rule.

Terming the NDA's assertion that people from every walk of life were feeling good under its rule, Khurshid said farmers, teachers, labourers, unemployed youths and likewise a larger section of society were feeling 'depressed' under the Vajpayee Government. Bureau Report