Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday criticised the Congress for its last-minute attempts to cobble alliances in its bid for power and sought the people's mandate for another term to realise the vision of making India a developed nation by 2020.

Addressing an election rally to mark the end of the first part of Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's Bharat Uday Yatra in Amritsar, he said that the coming election was not ordinary, but "one that will change the face of India".

He accused the Congress of bringing down governments that it had supported earlier. "Opposition parties are in a mad rush. Some of the leaders are even running bare feet so that they don't miss the chance and they are not delayed," Vajpayee said.

On the other hand, he said, "We were with the Akali Dal earlier and we are still with them. There are other parties also who have stuck around with us for so long. This is not for the sake of power. We have forged an alliance against the Congress and it has grown from strength to strength."

"We have been in politics for 40 years. We have never played with the interests of the nation for coming to power," he said.

He said that was the reason why the Congress governments or those supported by that party never lasted long. He cited the examples of the governments under Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar, I K Gujral and H D Deve Gowda.

"Congress made some of them prime minister and then went on to dislodge them turn by turn."