BJP juggernaunt pauses to think

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Sonia Gandhi's decision to actively campaign for the Congress party has effectively stemmed the euphoria generated in the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Sonia Gandhi’s decision to actively campaign for the Congress party has effectively stemmed the euphoria generated in the BJP by its headstart in the race for power.Although the leadership officially persisted with the “it-will-make-no-difference” line, insiders admitted that the party will have to do some quick thinking to counter the effect of the Sonia factor.RSS and BJP strategists have long held that Rajiv Gandhi’s widow can win the Congress one election. She is the unknown element in poll chemistry and now that their hypothesis will be put to test, they are unsure how to handle it.

It is, of course, early days yet and the full impact of her entry into the electoral arena will be evident only over the next couple of weeks. But in Sonia, the Congress has finally found itself an instrument to balance the BJP hype of the past several days.For starters, the BJP expects that her announcement today will stop the current exodus from the Congress, thereby blunting its propoganda edge.

The party also feels that there may be another round of political realignments as smaller and regional parties reassess the electoral prospects of a Congress led by Sonia Gandhi. It is too early to predict the shape and form of these alignments. But the saffron brigade is now mentally gearing itself for a straight fight between a BJP-led conglomerate and a Congress-led alliance in most constituencies with honourable exceptions in states like Bengal, Kerala, Andhra and Tamil Nadu where regional forces continue to hold sway.

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While this one-to-one contest is what the party has always wanted, it is not confident that its network is vast enough yet to face a revitalised Congress. Even at its all-time low performance in the last elections, the Congress with its vote-share of around 30 per cent was ahead of all other parties. The BJP’s own share was around 22 per cent.

BJP leaders feel that Sonia’s presence will definitely enthuse Congress workers and push them to reactivate the party’s decaying network of activists for voter mobilisation. The BJP has its own dedicated cadre in the RSS but pitted against a more active Congress, party strategists admit that they will have to work harder than ever before. Officially, BJP maintained that Sonia’s entry will give it additional issues against the Congress, the Bofors scandal heading the list. It also asserted that with her foreign background, she will not find acceptability among the people.

Privately, however, BJP leaders conceded that the “Rome versus Ram” contest was limited to urban centres and would not attract much support in the rural areas where the Gandhi name still carries an emotional ring.