Lucknow, Sep 18 - Terming the austerity drive of the Congress as a 'political stunt', Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maneka Gandhi Friday said it would have been better if the Congress government focused on strategising ways to fight corruption.

'If ministers get committed to weed out corruption, I think there would be surely no need for any austerity drive. The one undertaken by the Congress is just a political stunt and holds no significance,' Gandhi told reporters in Bareilly.

Asked to comment on Congress president Sonia Gandhi flying to Mumbai in the economy class as a part of the government's austerity drive, Maneka said: 'I will only say that there has been no significant measures to check foreign trips. Ministers are frequently visiting abroad.''

Sonia and Maneka Gandhi are daughters-in-law of late prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Maneka, who was in her home constituency Aonla in the Bareilly district, some 300 km from here, to review developmental projects there, said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance should concentrate on curtailing the galloping food prices in the country.

'It's the need of the hour. The government now must act seriously to check the rising prices.'