With this, BJP government has succeeded in adding another `B' to its election issues after Bomb, Bihar, Budget and Bus.

The government started dusting the Bofors files when it became clear that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was going ahead with her plans to topple the Vajpayee government.

Two cases pending with the Prime Minister's Office since 1997 were activated suddenly. Then CBI director Joginder Singh had sought sanction to prosecute Gopi Arora, S.K. Bhatnagar, Win Chadha, Ottavio Quattrocchi and others in the Rs 64-crore kickback case and Solanki for obstructing the probe. Rajiv Gandhi was also named as an accused in the first case.

Solanki had delivered a letter in 1992 to his Swiss counterpart asking his government to go slow on the Bofors investigations. Admitting that he had delivered the letter, Solanki quitthe Cabinet. He, however, explained that he neither knew the contents of the letter and nor the person who handed him over the same at the airport.

While Solanki's file was forwarded to the President by the PMO about a month ago, another charge-sheet against former defence secretary S.K. Bhatnagar was cleared by the government a day before it fell on April 17.

Though Congress spokesperson Ajit Jogi has reacted cautiously by saying that ``let the law take its own course,'' the two Bofors cases have caught his party on the wrong foot. Even before the party could latch on to the `stability' slogan, the Vajpayee government has gone on the offensive by launching a multi-pronged attack on Sonia Gandhi.

It is perceived that the real target of the proposed Bofors charge-sheet was Sonia's late husband Rajiv Gandhi and not former defence secretary Bhatnagar.

Strangely, the name of Gopi Arora, the then private secretary to Rajiv Gandhi, was removed by the government.

N.N. Vohra, then additional secretary fordefence, Serla Grewal and others questioned by the CBI may be key CBI witnesses.

The CBI's case is that Rajiv and others cleared the Bofors deal within 48 hours after it was okayed by the Army. The case would come for trial in July. Now that the general elections would be held in September-October, the case is expected to embarrass the Congress.

Now that the CBI and Enforcement Directorate are directly under the PMO instead of the Central Vigilance Commission, the government, it is said, is asserting its authority.