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Sonia too keeps options open for tying up with Jaya

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today reacted positively to All India Anna DMK chief J Jayalalitha's recent statement that her party's option of a possible alliance with the Congress was open, by saying "our options are open too''.

Sonia Gandhi, who visited Bellarkha village near Narwana in Haryana and talked to the bereaved families of the reported suicide victims there, said her party would put pressure on the central government for compensation to all the poor people whose kith and kin had committed suicide due to poverty.

''I have visited several other villages throughout the country and observed that people in remote areas are very poor,'' she said, lamenting that suicide due to poverty was really pathetic.

Responding to a question, Gandhi said she would certainly visit Punjab in the near future.

Sonia Gandhi listened to the woes of the villagers and talked to them fluently in Hindi. About 25 families were selected and seated in a pandal where they told her how their relatives had committed suicide due to poverty and indebtedness.

She was accompanied by senior party leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Meira Kumar who were assisting her by noting down the names of the bereaved family members.

After talking to them for half-an-hour Gandhi left for nearby Karangarh and Amargarh villages to meet the families of suicide victims there.

Former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, senior party leader Shamsher Singh Surkjewala and Haryana Congress chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda were also present on the occasion.

UNI

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