New Delhi:
After the Congress was decimated in the Bihar elections, Sonia Gandhi congratulated the Nitish Kumar-BJP alliance for its clean sweep. She said her party "will start from scratch" in the state. "We did not have much hope. We took a deliberate decision not to work in alliance with other parties," she said.
For the first time, she also spoke about the 2G spectrum scam. Gandhi defended the PM vehemently, describing him as 100% above board" and said it was "shameful" for the Opposition to attack the Prime Minister over the controversy.
She said she wanted to remind the Opposition that they targeted the PM in 2009, and that the PM won the election.
The Opposition has been demanding that the PM explain his role in the 2G scam, which cost A Raja his job as Telecom Minister. The Supreme Court had asked the government to explain why the PM's office took close to a year to decide on a request by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, asking for sanction to prosecute Raja while he was in office.
Gandhi also took on the BJP for deciding that BS Yeddyurappa will continue as Chief Minister of Karnataka despite the allegations of corruption confronting him. Gandhi said that her party has acted swiftly against members accused of corruption - she cited the examples of Shashi Tharoor, Ashok Chavan and Natwar Singh.
Chavan was removed as Maharashtra Chief Minister last month after it was revealed that three of his family members were given flats in a Mumbai building intended to house war widows and defence veterans. Gandhi said Chavan would have been removed even sooner, but the party wanted to wait till US President Barack Obama completed his trip to Mumbai.