Sonia Gandhi urges Cong MPs to fight negative politics of BJP

New Delhi - Leading the counter-offensive on the coal block allocation issue, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday rallied the party behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by making a strong attack on BJP at a party meeting in New Delhi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday criticised the Opposition for holding Parliament to ransom and urged the party MPs to fight intemperate politics of the BJP.

"The BJP is holding Parliament to ransom, we have nothing to hide or to be defensive about," said Sonia Gandhi during a meeting with Congress Parliamentary Party in New Delhi on Tuesday.

"Must effectively rebut, repel in the upcoming polls," she said.

"We need to fight the negative politics of BJP," Sonia Gandhi told the Congress MPs in New Delhi.

It was Sonia Gandhi's first interaction with party MPs after the coal controversy broke out.

The proceedings of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have been paralysed for the last five days following turmoil on the issue.

Gandhi, while interacting with a group of party leaders last week, had signalled to partymen to be on the offensive against BJP which has been sticking to its demand for the resignation of the Prime Minister.

In fact, Gandhi's address was expected to form the basis of the party's counterattack in Parliament on Tuesday as several party MPs are planning to give notices in the Lok Sabha for a disucssion on the issue under Rule 193, which does not entail voting.

Meanwhile, home minister P Chidambaram and coal minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal on Monday evening held a special briefing for party MPs and union ministers on the issue, apparently as part of Congress plans to corner the Opposition on the issue and puncture their criticism.

It is learnt RJD's Lalu Prasad, SP's Shailendra Kumar, CPI(M)'s Ramchandra Dome and BJD's B Mahtab have given notices in this regard.