Sonia to campaign in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will begin a mass contact programme in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh from March 16, 2004.

The decision follows her three-day mass contact programme in Andhra Pradesh, which began on Wednesday.

All India Congress Committee general secretary Ambika Soni said Sonia would visit only one constituency -- Dahanu in Thane district -- in Maharashtra.

But she said the Congress chief would devote much of her time campaigning in Gujarat on March 16, 17 and 18, covering eight districts, including Basad, Mandavi and Vadodara.

When asked about Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's Bharat Uday Yatra, Soni said party leader Renuka Chaudhury would be asking five questions to him in Kerala on the performance of the National Democratic Alliance government.

Asked about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's opinion that Sonia was unfit to govern this country, Soni said, "We are studying the speech to see if it was a violation of the Election Commission directives... if necessary we will approach the Commission."