RAIGANJ: The Congress can this time blame neither the Left Front government nor the Trinamool Congress for its plight in these watershed elections. The weather gods have played havoc with the campaign schedule of Sonia Gandhi.

First her rallies at Barasat in North 24 Parganas and Park Circus in Calcutta had to be cancelled because of torrential rain. On Saturday her meetings in Malda met the same fate because of incessant rain since Friday night.

Many areas in the town were waterlogged and there was no let-up in the rain, forcing the party to call of all the meetings. North Dinajpur District Magistrate Prashant said the situation had worsened to the extent that if the rain continued for another day, even the polling on October 3 could be affected. Pradesh Congress president A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury is the party candidate at Malda while working president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi is in the fray from Raiganj. Buoyed by Sonia's presence, a washout is the last thing theyexpected.

PATNA: In the extremist-infested Central Bihar, a silent revolution has taken place this time. Upper caste women in at least a dozen villages of Bikaram -- including Amroha, Dantianwa, Raghopur and Kharaula -- have come out of their homes to `man' booths in order to protect their franchise. In a place where guns are the final arbiter, these women have decided to sit in the polling booths, challenge impersonators and ensure that all women are allowed to exercise their franchise. It's the BJP's Mahila Morcha which is behind the initiative to educate the rural women who constitute 50 per cent of the total electorate.

The women are quite enthused by the task on hand though some elderly women were sceptical. But they gave in after counselling. Bikaram has seen the worst Naxalite clashes. In the last elections, the BJP had lagged behind by 3,000 votes. This time the party does not intend to lose this segment. In recent years, women from the rural poor and Dalits have turned vocal about their rightsbut this is the first time that upper-caste women are breaking free.

Agencies and Arun Srivastava