Sonia having tea at a village on Sunday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

Muzaffarnagar, Jan. 11: Asking the BJP why it was afraid of a woman, Sonia Gandhi today said the party would not stage a comeback at the Centre after the next polls.

“The BJP will not form the government at the Centre,” she told the reporters this afternoon at the Meerut circuit house after a whirlwind tour of the Jat belt in Uttar Pradesh.

“Congress workers are excited and they are ready to face any situation,” Sonia said, referring to the BJP’s loud hints at early general elections.

Reacting to the BJP’s move to raise the foreign origin issue again, she said: “Mai puchtee hoon ki woh ek mahila se kyon darte hain (I want to ask why are they afraid of a woman)?”

Sonia claimed that she was not worried if the BJP makes this an election issue. “I don’t care. I just care for the people,” she said.

The Congress president, who had confined herself yesterday to interacting with people on the sidelines, today waded into fields to talk to farmers. She covered over 125 km today to reach Muzaffarnagar.

“How many hours do you put in daily? Do you get time to take rest in between? Do your children go to school?” she asked a group of women farmhands.

One of the women sought Sonia’s help, complaining that they are lowly paid. When one of Sonia’s aides asked the woman who the guest was, she replied: “She is Indira Gandhi’s bahu, Sonia Gandhi.”

The main grievance of the farmers was that they were not getting adequate price for the sugarcane crop.

Some farmers were dejected that Sonia did not offer any assurance, though she gave a patient hearing.

But the Congress president said: “It was a good experience since I got a chance to hear their problems directly.”