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‘Gap now narrows: Congress to win majority'

Rajiv says he lost rapport with Indian electorate
NEW DELHI. Apr 14: Rajiv Oandhi. gearing up for next month s now or never election bld. believes he la rapidly closing s communication gap with Indian voters that he blames for his Congress (I) Party's eclipse. reports AFP.
the 47- year-old former Premier, wooing the electorate with promises of a stable, durable government, feels he tost touch with the pulse of the people sometime during the five years he waa In power after a landslide win in 1984
The main mistake was this a lack of communication with the people ' Gandhi said here Saturday. ’ It was both ways— we lost touch with the people and the people tost touch with us and a tot got compounded because of that.
•We have gone through what we did right and what we did strong.' he said during a rare interview on the lawns of his fortress- like residence.
And. he reckoned, he and his party did plenty that was right. The economy strengthened. India's international image Improved and thorny communal and caste disputes stere contained during his 1984-89 rule, he said
'But we found tremendous anger In the north.' he said, citing the Congress (Ifs deba cle In the electorally crucial Hindi-speaking heartland of India in 1989. "We couldn't project our achievements because of the communication *P-
That was a mistake Gandhi said his party was trying to reverse. voicing confidence the Congress (1) was getting its promise of stability across to a responsive electorate.
"It looks like the Congress will get a comfortable major Ity.' he said, and refused to answer hypothetical questions on post electoral alliances incase no party won a majority to form a government on Its own.
He looked fresh and relaxed. dressed tn a spotless white homespun kurta- pyjama outfit, but appeared slightly nervous and at times ' defensive during the freewheeling news conference.
The former airline pilot, who gave the Congress fl) its largest ever mandate on a sympathy wave stemming from the October 1984 assassination
of his mother Indira Gandhi, said the issues before the elec torate this time were stability, prices and violence.
The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). (Indian People's Party) is banking on the Hindu majority to vote it into power on its crusade to replace a disputed 16th century Muslim shrine in the northern town of Ayodhya with a temple.
The centrist National Front alliance led by Gandhi's successor Vishwanath Pratap Singh is hoping to gain office by wooing India's sizeable backward Hindu castes and its Muslim minority with Job quotas and strident opposition to the BJP.
Gandhi said neither was projecting the real issues.
"I feel (the real issues are) the prices and the violence — and a stable government that can control price* and violence In the daily life of the
people." he said.
The last 15 months have been catastrophic." he said of his party's months out of power.
Inflation has hit double -digit levels and separatist violence has shown a sharp upsurge in the Sikh-majority Punjab and Muslim -dominated Kashmir states.
The pressure on Gandhi to win the election is considerable.
Corruption was the main issue in the 1989 general elections that 'brought to power V. P Singh-