``This is what I have come to hear and it's wonderful,'' said Prafulbhai Desani. ``This man is innocent,'' said a group of traders.

``Jaisi praja, vaisi lagni aur vaisa hi neta'', smiled Vashabhai, who came all the way from Jasdan taluka's Sanada village to Rajkot. ``He is the true leader of the people and a great orator'', said Jaysukhbhai Patel.

Vajpayee touched on a variety of themes, but his pet topic was obviously the stability issue. ``The Lok Sabha is elected for five years but this is the third election in three years, thanks to the Congress'', he said in Vyara. ``The Congress pulled down all three governments and betrayed the people. The people should punish it for its sins. The money spent on election could have been used for roads, water, hospital and schools.''

``They (Congress) were jealous that we were governing so well. They couldn't tolerate our rising popularity. They knew people had started liking us and they decided we should go. In the next two days you will be voting; your vote should last the next five years,'' he told the crowd in Rajkot.

Then, when the mood of the crowd warmed up to him, he unleashed a tirade against the Congress. With the crowd waiting in silent expectation, he paused for a moment and said: ``We lost by one vote. One vote. Couldn't we have arranged for it? Couldn't we have bought it off? Bazaar mein bahut maal tha. Bikne wale bhi the. Lekin kharidne wale nahi the,'' he said to rapturous applause. And before the applause died, he declared: ``We refused to buy that one vote because our ethics did not allow us. And here am I asking for your votes so that we don't have to depend on that one vote again.''

He harped on the `five-year blueprint' that the BJP had drawn up. ``We had started projects which we could not execute because our government was pulled down by the Congress. If you elect the BJP, we assure you that in five years we will provide water, roads, schools and a hospital to every village in the country. We have prepared a blueprint but we need your mandate for five years.''

Then it was time for local issues. In Vyara, part of Mandvi constituency, he found easy meat in the performance of `incompetent' incumbent and Congress candidate Chhitubhai Gamit. One factory after another run by Gamit has been closed over the past two years, affecting more than 40,000 tribal families. Gamit's winning margin (he has been elected seven times) has come down from several lakhs to a few thousand as committed Congress voters have shifted their allegiance.