Agreeing with PM, waiting for Sonia

The city is now waiting for Sonia. 8220;We would like to wait and see what Sonia Gandhi has to offer before we finally make up our mind,8221; cautions Salim Patel, another businessman fromSnehnagar. 8220;But Vajpayee appeared to mean business. And after we heard him, we felt that as a Prime Minister, he did the best an Indian Prime Minister could do in a situation like Kargil.8221;

The satorias gamblers of Indore, like Bunite Agarwal, cannot be dismissed lightly. They can bet millions on the chances of a raindrop falling on a particular patra tinshed in the city8217;s Chowk Sarafa at a specified time and date. Since they are willing to back what they fancy with their money, their hunches have an element of realpolitik. For whatever their religion, the one god all of them worship is Mammon.

What was the impression Vajpayee left on them? To Mathew Nalumacky of Girdhar Nagar, the essence of what Vajpayee said was not an exhortation to support a particular party. 8220;He told us that the one MP we elect may be crucial in deciding who should be the next Prime Minister of India.8221;

Vajpayee8217;s lament that he was defeated by one vote because a Congress Chief Minister Giridhar Gomango played a doublerole 8212; that of an MP 8212; seems to have touched a chord. In an oblique manner, he seemed to be hitting out at Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh also for publicly saying that a vote for Congress candidate Mahesh Joshi was a vote for Digvijay Singh.

The argument seemed to have convinced some. As Manoj Barania of Yadavanan Nagar said: 8220;It8217;s going to make no difference to Digvijay if the Congress wins or loses one more seat in Madhya Pradesh in these elections. But as Vajpayee said a vote for Mahajan will really be a vote for Vajpayee.8221;

In most parts of the city the Lok Sabha constituency is 67 per cent urban Kargil was the talk of the town and people were satisfied with the way the Vajpayee Government handled the war situation. As Priya Shukla of Lokmanya Nagar put it, 8220;The Vajpayee Government seems to have done better in its caretaker days than what it did when it was hemmed by its coalition partners.8221;

But not everyone is willing to buy the BJP line on Kargil. Nilesh Gaur, a financierliving in Snehnagar, is against political parties capitalising on Kargil. 8220;The credit should go to the jawans who risked their lives in a difficult situation despite the mess the politicians had created in Jammu and Kashmir,8221; he said. He was happy that Vajpayee had himself conceded this.

No wonder Mahajan8217;s calculated display of austerity the lady has been telling the people that for every rupee donated for her campaign, they should send one to the families of the Kargil heroes has left the people of Indore unmoved.

Neither is the city taken in by the high-voltage publicity blitz by Congress8217; Mahesh Joshi who has splashed the city with larger-than-life cut-outs, multi-coloured posters and screaming banners. Openly flouting his friendship with the CM, Joshi is promising the people everything under the heaven.

8220;The people have decided to wait for Sonia Gandhi before they make their final choice,8221; says Salim Patel. 8220;We don8217;t want another election and would like to see which of them can give India astable and efficient government!8221;