New Delhi

May 1, 2004

REAL FIGHT BEGINS NOW

Electioneering is going on for more than a month and two rounds of the Lok Sabha polling are already over but the real fight has begun now between the two main contenders for power in tandem with their respective allies. The third round of polling on May 5 in 83 constituencies spread over seven states is proving to be the real clincher the way both are finetuning their strategies as if it will make or mar their chance to form the government.

Rattled by the prospects of losing power, the Bhartiya Janata Party is concentrating all its leaders in Uttar Pradesh where polls are due on 42 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, leaving for the local leaders to campaign in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other states going to polls in the second phase on Wednesday. The Congress is in high spirit from the sudden prospects of winning the elections and it has chosen to concentrate in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to retain the seats won in 1999 and try to reverse the impact of the stunning defeat the party suffered in the assembly elections.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will continue to concentrate while she has dispatched all other leaders to focus on other states. Priyanka will be undertaking the road shows in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on the last two days of campaigning on May 2 and 3.

Realising that its development card is not working among the masses, the BJP has chosen to play its time-tested Hindu card by summoning its Hindutva mascot Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, to campaign in at least 30 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, keeping away from only those where the Muslims are in large number. The party is no longer focusing on excessive appeals to the Muslims as that is adversely affecting its traditional voters. While the top party leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani, carry out a carpet-bombing type campaign, the RSS cadres have taken full charge of mobilising the traditional voters to come out in full strength on the polling day.

BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan is busy fixing the caste equations and summoning the caste leaders to campaign in particular constituencies like Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti campaign for the Lodh community as he finds former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh not able to reach out to the community in all constituencies. The RSS cadres are being buided by two RSS pracharaks holding top posts at the national level in BJP. While General Secretary Sanjay Joshi has been given the responsibility of attending to all constituencies going to polls on May 5, Vice-President Pyarelal Khandelwal has been asked to rush to Uttar Pradesh and attend to the remaining 18 constituencies going to polls on May 10. Sanjay Joshi is sending a clear message to the cadres that the party must win 35 of the 48 seats in U.P. in
the third round to remain in the reckoning for forming the government.

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SONIA GANDHI VERSUS NARENDRA MODI

In Delhi, it will be Sonia Gandhi versus Narendra Modi virtually on May 7 when both campaign on the same day. While Sonia Gandhi will be addressing just one rally at the historic Ramlila Ground alongwith her children Priyanka and Rahul, Modi will be addressing a series of public meetings in four of the seven constituencies that go to polls in the last round on May
10. Since Sonia Gandhi has no time to campaign in Haryana, the party has asked the state leaders to arrange transportation of people to Delhi from the neighouring areas to attend the public meeting at the Ramlila Ground.

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BJP STAR NITE - ENERGISING THE CADRES

On Friday, the BJP organised in Delhi a star nite as it has done in some other places but with a difference. The Delhi show was aimed at boosting up the morales of the BJP workers and hence some 4,000 invitation cards for the
show attended by a score of film and TV personalities have been issued only to the party cadres and not to the public. They called it a "Mahashakti Bharat Sangeet Sandhya" organised to galvanise the party cadres to get involved in the electioneering with full force. There are a number of holidays beginning from Saturday and hence the party wants the cadres to get engaged in a door-to-door campaign over the next nine days.

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A 'ROYAL FUED' IN MADHYA PRADESH

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh was initially reluctant to campaign against his own brother Laxman who has betrayed him by joining BJP and becoming its candidate in Rajgarh. It is their erstwhile princely state of Raghogarh that still matters in the rural areas where they are known more popularly as "Bade Raja" and "Chhote Raja." The poor voters are quite confused from Digvijay's appeal to defeat Laxman as it is the loyalty to the royal family that counts in the counstituency and the voters do not understand how they can show disloyalty towards "Chhote Raja" by voting against him and they would also not like to disobey "Bade Raja." Digvijay is counting on all those loyal to the royal family preferring to abstain from voting because of being put in the predicament and that may help since the
local BJP workers are already lukewarm in helping out Laxman. A smart Laxman has, however, played the "outsider" card against his Congress rival, pointing out that Shambhu Singh, a retired High Court, judge had nothing to
do with the area. He also flaunts a score of works carried out in the constituency, giving credit for these works to Prime Minister Vajpayee while he finds himself embarrassed whenever the elders pull him up to remember that all these works would not have been possible but for his elder brother
Digvijay being the CM