Amritsar: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today (March 26, 2004) hit out at the Congress for its last-minute attempts to cobble alliances in its bid for power and sought the people's mandate for another term to realise the vision of pitch-forking India as a developed nation by 2020.

Addressing an election rally to mark the end of the first-leg of Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's rath yatra, he said that the coming election was not an ordinary poll but "one that would change the face of India".

Vajpayee hit out at the Opposition parties for trying to forge quick-fix alliances that could fall apart at any time and accused Congress of bringing down Governments which it had supported earlier.

"Opposition parties are in a mad rush. Some of the leaders are even running bare-feet so that they don't miss the chance and they are not delayed," Vajpayee said.

On the other hand, he said, "We were with the Akali Dal earlier and we are still with them. There are other parties also who have stuck around with us for so long. This (unity) is not for the sake of power. We have forged an alliance against the Congress and it has grown from strength to strength."

"This is not a normal election... it is not for (Governments of) three days, 13 days or 13 months. These elections will change the face of India," Vajpayee said, adding "We have been in politics for 40 years. We have never played with the interests of the nation for coming to power and never resorted to dubious means to achieve it."

He said that was the reason why the Congress Governments or those supported by that party never lasted long. He cited the examples of the Governments under Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar, I K Gujral and H D Deve Gowda.

"Congress made some of them Prime Minister and then went on to dislodge them turn by turn. Hamara kaam baari-baari se nahin hai (Our work is not turn by turn)," he said.