Congress not to bank on any personality in election: Manish Tiwari

SHILLONG: Congress will fight the next Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party Vice-president Rahul Gandhi and not on any personality, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari today said.

"The party will go to the 2014 Lok Sabha poll based on the Westminster model of democracy followed in our country and not a Presidential one," Tewari told PTI here referring to BJP nominating its prime ministerial candidate ahead of the poll.

"The UPA has had the maturity to rise above petty ambitions," he said, adding the UPA government had been working silently in shaping programmes and policies to improve the lives of 1.2 billion people of the country.

"The UPA will fight the polls on the basis of the strength of its policies and programmes," he said.

The minister was here to attend an anniversary function of leading local English daily last evening.

Reacting to Tiwari's statement, BJP's Meghalaya unit General Secretary Dipayan Chakraborty said, "the Constitution of the country has not barred any political party to declare their prime ministerial candidate on the eve of election."