NAGPUR, Feb 19: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L K Advani lost the `battle for crowds' to Sonia Gandhi, but that did not deter him from challenging the Congress' star campaigner to have a `war of words' with him.His public meeting today at Tumsar, about 120 km from here, failed to touch the level of frenzy created just three days ago at the same place by Sonia.
This despite the fact that the crowd of nearly 30,000 which assembled here today was fairly large by any yardstick for this small town in Bhandara district.
Gone were the teeming crowd of tens of thousands who walked a fair distance to catch a glimpse of Sonia; so were the overzealous supporters, the delirious scenes and a near hysteria spurred by a mere glance or a hand-wave by the Congress' star campaigner. Instead, the venue - Nehru stadium opposite S N Mor College - today presented an orderly scene, so typical of the BJP, with a steady stream of people pouring in since an hour before noon.
But even by the time the meeting wasscheduled to begin, the crowd had not reached an inspiring proposition. However, the organisers had a sufficient breather as Advani's arrival was delayed by a couple of hours. Even when he finally arrived to a cheerful reception, the crowd covered a little more than half the ground.
Party sympathisers were seen offering explanations, ranging from ``Sonia's rally was held on a Sunday and she was visiting Tumsar for the first time'' to ``the crowd can never be an apt indicator, especially in cases like that of Sonia, who carries a lot of curiosity value.'' Meanwhile, in the 30-minute speech which was more or less the same as the ones at previous campaign meetings, Advani dared Sonia to a public debate with him on national issues.
``Why Sonia, I am prepared for a debate even with Congress president Sitaram Kesri. Let us know if they can do more than just read out from a prepared manuscript,'' he said, in an apparent dig at Sonia.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
