Allahabad, Feb 7: With barely a week left before the country goes to the hustings, electioneering has reached a feverish pitch in the state with political parties making last ditch attempts to woo the electorate. And as things stand, the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress seems set to erode front runner Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) painstakingly achieved advantage in the state at least to some extent.In Varanasi on Friday, Sonia Gandhi attracted crowds the likes of which have rarely been witnessed in India's oldest city. And it is here in the holiest city of the Hindus that the Congress' star campaigner sought to unmask the ``real face'' of the BJP. Using the words of the leaders of the saffron brigade ``Philhal hum Kashi, Mathura ka mudda nahin utthayenge'' (we will not raise the issues of the Kashi and Mathura temples for the time being), she maintained that this clearly indicated the ulterior motives of the communal forces which had unleashed communal violence in the country in 1992-93.
Flanked by son RahulGandhi and the UP Congress Committee (UPCC) president and old Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist, Narain Dutt Tiwari, Sonia Gandhi, who reached Benia Bagh three hours late from her scheduled arrival at 4 pm, waxed eloquent about the rich religious and cultural heritage of the city. And amidst thunderous applause she urged the people to vote for a strong, bold and secular government at the Centre.
Interestingly, the site chosen by the Congress for the function is situated in a predominantly Muslim locality of the city and not surprisingly therefore a large part of the approximately 70-80,000 strong crowd consisted of Muslims and women.
In sharp contrast, BJP President Lal krishan Advani's maiden canvassing appearance in UP in the saffron brigade's erstwhile bastion, Faizabad, attracted a gathering which sent alarm bells ringing in the local BJP camps. A thin and clearly bored crowd seemed barely interested in Advani's renewed pledge of constructing a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. Even the Boforsissue failed to elicit any response from an indifferent audience. Advani's challenge to Sonia Gandhi to lift the veil shrouding the Bofors deal and disclose the facts that she has been hiding clearly had no takers.
Confessed a state leader of the saffron brigade, ``It is evident that the Congress has succeeded in convincing the population that it has nothing to hide in the Bofors case.'' Terming this a classic example of propaganda technique frequently used in the West for promoting sub-standard goods, the main thrust of which is to make one's weakest point appear the strongest, he maintained that the Congress had succeeded in doing just that in the Bofors case.
And even as it appears at this stage that the virtually decimated Congress may actually succeed in putting up a fight in a state from which it was routed in the last elections, yet another political party which had a sizeable following in UP, namely the Mulayam-Sing led Samajvadi Party also appears to have suffered a setback if the public mood atits rallies is anything to go by. ``The infighting between the Janata Dal, the Communist Party and SP has taken its toll,'' Lamented a party worker. And attempts to attract crowds by getting filmstars like Raj Babbar to campaign for local candidates are falling flat as can be evidenced from the sparse crowds who are attending these functions. ``With that being the case, it seems that the Congress will finally stand to gain from everyone's losses contrary to an earlier prediction that the saffron brigade would romp home with a clean sweep in the state,'' admitted an SP leader.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
