Bangalore: Buoyed by the impressive defeat of the no-confidence motion against the Vajpayee government, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on August 20 said it had shown "chinks" in the Congress-led formation and made it clear that the NDA was "very firm and well knit".

"It has shown chinks…in the sense that there wasn't a common purpose and determination or total unity of whatever their (Congress-led) formation," Defence Minister and NDA convenor George Fernandes told reporters, a day after the 126-vote defeat of the no-trust motion in Parliament.

Fernandes said the August 19 debate had made it clear that NDA "stood firm" and "there is not even any hiccup which we had to face in the early phase".

NDA was the platform, which was created five years ago "through which we went to polls and won", he said, saying that they would fight the next elections also on same platform.

The Congress, he said, was "trying to assemble (a combine) but it is not sticking together. "I feel that the Congress lacks the kind of resilience that is needed to put up a platform together."

Asked if he thought that the defeat of the no-confidence motion was a "setback to Sonia Gandhi", he shot back, "You may say so if you wish to say so."

Asserting that the NDA was "always strong", Fernandes said the vote had helped to show how "well knit NDA is and how it was holding together despite ups and downs".

PTI