New Delhi:
Congress president Sonia Gandhi today (May 11, 2004) expressed gratitude to the people of Andhra Pradesh for reposing faith in her party and extending support to it and its allies enabling them to get three-fourths majority in the Assembly polls.
Gandhi had profusely thanked the people for landslide victory of her party and its allies in the polls, Congress general secretary Ambika Soni told reporters in New Delhi.
Terming the victory in Andhra Pradesh as "three-in-one", she explained the first was that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, "the poster boy of BJP-led NDA and a symbol of feel good factor and India shining campaign", was compelled to sit in the Opposition.
The second was that the claim of victory made everyday by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president M Venkaiah Naidu from Andhra Pradesh had been dismissed and the third was that the brand name in the form of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to garner votes was rejected by the Andhra people, Soni said.
"Our three-fourths majority victory is much more than what opinion and exit polls predicted. This will be repeated when the results of the Lok Sabha polls will be available on May 13," she said.
