Monday, January 16 2006 20:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lucknow: The Congress today (Jan 16, 2006) said Samajwadi Party (SP) was trying to drag the name of AICC President Sonia Gandhi into the phone-tapping controversy to divert public attention away from the SP-led government's failures with an eye on the approaching Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The SP leaders allegations in this regard "clearly reflect that they have become perturbed and want to highlight a non-issue keeping in view the approaching Assembly elections in the state as it is bereft of any real issue", AICC general secretary in-charge of UP Ashok Gehlot told reporters here today.

Asked why under these circumstances was the Congress supporting the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, he said the support had been extended to counter the communal forces.

"It is the clear view of the Congress not to have anything to do with the communal parties," Gehlot asserted though he admitted that the party had become weak in the state owing to rampant groupism.

On whether the Congress would align with the BSP in the next Assembly elections, he said the party would at the moment go it alone.

Gehlot said the development of the state had suffered in successive non-Congress regimes as the ruling parties ignored the real problems facing the state.