BJP to guard its trump: Sparse use, special effect

Not that it would be too different from Vajpayee’s 1999 campaign trail. The Prime Minister had then touched over 100 constituencies in 43 days. He is likely to do the same this time too. Sources point out that the Prime Minister has already covered a number of states and toured Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Bihar.

Though there might be some overlapping of constituencies with Advani, the Prime Minister’s itinerary will take into account requests from allies and senior party leaders. Vajpayee will address rallies in the constituencies of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi and Defence Minister George Fernandes.

The PMO anticipates campaign requests from N. Chandrababu Naidu of Telegu Desam, Navin Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal, Prakash Singh Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal and Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress among others. Sources point out that it is best to involve Vajpayee extensively only when the campaign peaks.

Not that the Prime Minister will be spending these weeks in March without too many political responsibilities. Already, there is a long queue of people seeking an appointment with him and they include political aspirants, mostly those who want to come on board now. The Prime Minister is clearing the names of most new entrants himself. This explains why he was upset when he was not consulted over the acceptance of D.P. Yadav.

He is busying himself with nitty-gritties like personally going through campaign literature of the party and suggesting crucial changes in booklets that have been published. Sources say the party may want him to talk to the MPs who are going be dropped following feedback that they have become too unpopular in their constituencies. The Prime Minister isn’t staying away from public rallies either. Next Monday, on Women’ Day, he will address women workers of the party’s Mahila Morcha. He had also addressed a meeting of the Minority Morcha recently.

And on election issues, the core team of four presided over by Vajpayee is meeting frequently. This team also includes Advani, party president M. Venkaiah Naidu and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.

When crucial political decisions are taken, the Prime Minister convenes a meeting of the larger think tank comprising — other than the core team — senior leaders like Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Sanjay Joshi. Sometimes, the think tank is further expanded to include Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha.