``Look at Punjab,'' thundered Venkaiah Naidu, BJP national general secretary. ``The Congress removed a woman, Rajinder Bhattal, from the position of the leader of the Punjab legislative party and we installed a charismatic woman leader as the Chief Minister here. See the difference. The chief minister will come and tell you more...''

But Swaraj never came to tell them more. The chief minister, who is expected to attract a sizeable chunk of woman voters in the coming Assembly elections, was too busy tying the loose ends of the Delhi Government to go vote-catching or give tips to fellow women activists on how to garner support for her.

An hour-and-a-half after the meeting began, there were murmurs that ``she was not coming''. But amid the whispers state party chief Mange Ram Garg went on: ``You should distribute 20 party leaflets each in a neighbourhood and choose at least two more sisters to distribute another 20. A chain will thus be formed to ensure that your new CM, Sushma Swaraj, wins with a thumping majority''.

``Make sacrifices for your sister who has come up from among you to become the chief minister. Do not stop your work for even a single day,'' he added.

The BJP's state unit held the sammelan as a run-up to the October 24 rally, where Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee is scheduled to laun-ch the state's election campaign. This was the second meeting organised by the BJP's women's wing the first one was for Muslim women and was addressed by Vajpayee.