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Jaya lacks Sonia's stature: Lalit Mohan Singh

All-India Congress Committee observer Lalit Mohan Singh today criticised All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha for having behaved discourteously towards Congress President Sonia Gandhi by staying away from the scheduled joint election campaign meeting at Villupuram on Sunday.

Talking to reporters in Madras, Singh, who is the AICC observer for Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, said Jayalalitha should realise that she is not yet a leader of national stature like Gandhi.

She should also learn to be courteous towards a political colleague, he added.

He answered in the negative when asked whether Gandhi and Jayalalitha would address a joint public meeting at a later date. That is unlikely, he added.

He said such a possibility would have arisen if Jayalalitha had called on Gandhi during her brief stopover at Madras yesterday.

Asked about the party's prospects at the hustings, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party would face a stiff fight from the Congress.

Asked whether the Congress faces a leadership crisis, he said without Vajpayee even the BJP would be leaderless.

UNI

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