Rae Bareli: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today (June 11, 2004) attacked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for ridiculing her party's ability to firm up a coalition before the elections and said that the ease with which it formed the Government and formulated a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) dashed its hopes.

"Some people were saying that we would not be able to form a coalition easily. But their hopes have been dashed. We formed the Government without any difficulty and also finalised the CMP in no time," Gandhi, who is on a thanks giving tour of her constituency, said addressing a meeting.

She prefaced her remarks saying that Congress was sharing power for the first time at the Centre, which is both a challenge as well as an experience.

Gandhi told her electorate that she listened to her inner voice and did not accept Prime Ministership. "Today I have got so much happiness which I would not have got if I had become Prime Minister."

Hitting out at the BJP, she said, "One could not constantly fool the people by raising emotional slogans or by practicing communal or casteist politics and the people want the assurances given to them to be fulfilled."

The previous Government spent crores of rupees of the people to "tom-tom" its achievements but the people realised their "true colours".