MUMBAI, February 23: The candidate from the constituency arrived late, the television stars who were slated to be present didn't land up and the speeches revolved round Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Sitaram Kesri.The high point of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma's meeting at Kalbadevi on Monday evening was a celebration of the "victory" of the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh. The party distributed pedas at the meeting, and in his speech too, Verma harped on the victory.
Television stars Chandraprakash Chanakya Dwivedi, Anu Kapoor, Grusha Kapoor and Pallavi Joshi were supposed to land up and give the meeting its necessary touch of glamour. Neither did they turn up, nor was any explanation offered to the assembled media. The meeting was kicked off with a speech by minister of state for housing, Raj Purohit, which, predictably, revolved around the Rent Control Act. He reiterated the state government's commitment to the protection oftenants, and blamed the Congress Party for introducing the Rent Control bill in 1992 in the state legislative assembly. Verma, in his address, lashed out at Kesri and Sonia, stating that if Sonia became the prime minister, she would "loot the country and leave". The country was still being looted, he said. "Earlier it was the Britishers, now it is the Congress on a larger scale." He added that martyrs like Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose had not spilled their blood and achieved independence to hand it over to some foreigner. "Did Kesri not find someone else in this vast country for the PM's chair?" he thundered.
He also questioned Sonia's statements about Atal Bihari Vaypayee's honesty. "What sacrifice has she made for the country? She is not aware of the country's culture and does not even know the language," he charged. Reacting to the huge crowds Sonia is drawing for her public meetings, he claimed, "Mere presence of crowds at meetings does not ensure that they will convert into votes."
The BJPleader also claimed that the BJP would garner 300 seats and form the government at the centre. What's more, all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and six in Mumbai will fall into the BJP basket, according to Verma.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
