Nashik, Oct 6 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday slammed the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (SS-BJP) alliance for 'using' the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji to garner votes.

"They (SS-BJP) do not have any concrete agenda for the common man. They are merely playing with the sentiments of the voters," she told a mammoth election rally in the heart of this wine country in the afternoon.

"This is the land of the great Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. But these political parties are playing with the sentiments of the people by politicizing his name for their vested interests. You must be careful of this kind of politics," she said.

In her brief speech at her first election rally for the Oct 13 assembly elections, Sonia Gandhi said the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were concerned about the common public and the poor.

"It is the tradition of the Congress that it has been serving the people irrespective of caste or creed. We are genuinely concerned about the problems of the common masses," she said.

Appealing to the people to vote for the Congress-NCP alliance, she said the coalition government would ensure 50 percent reservation for women at the Panchayat level if it returned to power.

Besides waiving off loans to farmers, the Congress-NCP alliance has decided to provide 25 kg of foodgrain like wheat, jowar and rice per month at Rs. 3 per kg to poor families, she said.

Sonia Gandhi added that the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachhar Committee report would also be implemented for the welfare of the minorities in the state.

Addressing the meeting, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said the state government would work to develop Nashik and its surrounding region as an industrial hub to generate employment.

Present on the occasion were state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre, NCP MP Sameer Bhujbal, and Nashik candidates Shobha Bachchav and Pankaj Bhujbal.(IANS)