Sambalpur (Orissa): Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Apr 13, 2004) said Congress, which had 112 members in the dissolved Lok Sabha, might not touch the three-figure mark in the coming elections.

The Congress strength has been continually on the decline while that of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on the rise, Advani told a largely-attended public meeting in Sambalpur.

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Recalling that Congress had won over a record 400 seats in the 1984 Parliamentary polls held in the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he said a "sympathy wave" swept the country leading to the landslide Congress victory while the Opposition was routed.

The BJP won only two seats, but that election proved to be the turning point in India's electoral history, he said.

"Since then the Congress has been steadily shrinking while the BJP has been growing,'” Advani remarked adding, "We have become the largest single party in the Lok Sabha while the Congress has only 112 members."

"I have often advised Congress leaders to think over the matter and analyse as to why their party was facing this situation," he said.

Praising the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-BJP Government's performance in the last four years in the State, Advani said people were of the "opinion that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is honest and is not willing to compromise with corruption".