Jan 21: Since music is the food of campaigns, the Congress has decided to play on. So, India's Grand Old Party is getting a brand new signature tune - `Sonia Gandhi balle balle'.The party has asked Delhi-based composer Jawahar Wattal to set the tune for Sonia Gandhi's campaign with three songs. The audio cassettes of parodies of popular songs will be sent across the country, played in street corners, villages and campaign meetings. Wattal, who composed music for Daler Mehndi's chart-buster Ho jayegi balle balle, is the composer of the Sonia re-mix. The lyricist's name is still a closely guarded secret. Guesses range from Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad to Piyush, the poet-slogan writer from Amethi.Here's a sneak preview of the Sonia songs:* Woh to Ma Teresa say bhi puchein ge ki woh apni thi ya parayi. Yeh woh log hai jinhone Ram say Sita choorayi.Ma aur pati ko kho kar ghar ki jimmedari nibahi.Ab Sonia Gandhi ayee. (These are the people who will even question if Mother Teresa was ours. They are the ones who separated Ram from Sita. After losing mother and husband she carried out all family responsibilities. And now comes Sonia Gandhi.)* Ab to Sonia Gandhi aye jeet gayi ab Congress (I). Ho gayi teri balle balle ho jayegi balle balle. (Now that Sonia Gandhi has come, the Congress will win)Wattal told The Indian Express that he was commissioned to do three songs based on Ai mere watan ke logon, Ai mere pyare watan and his own Balle balle ``I was given the lyrics for which I composed music''. Wattal says for the Sonia songs, he used the same instruments used in the original songs. Ghazal singer Sudip Banerjee has sung the Congress version of Ai mere watan ke logon and Ai mere pyare watan (it's now Mere to Rajiv ratan) while Bhangra rapper Bhupi Chawla has sung the ``modified'' Balle balle.Three lakh cassettes of the audio campaign will be released by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) this week. Sources say, like all publicity material for this election, the cassettes has been ``cleared'' by 10 Janpath before being given to the AICC publicity cell with instructions for ``wide distribution''.Taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for questioning Sonia's Indian credentials, the Congress hopes that the songs will answer the ``Rome charges''. Says a senior Congress leader: ``Wherever madam goes, we will play the songs''.The six-minute audio campaign will be backed by a video featuring clips of Priyanka Gandhi's wedding to drive home the point that Sonia Gandhi entered politics after fulfilling all her family responsibility.The video cassette which also will be distributed in every constituency is exclusively devoted to the first family of the Congress.It has clips of Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Sonia and Rajiv along with their children. The final shot is a freeze frame of Sonia's face superimposed on Rajiv. The content is emotive with funeral shots pointing to the collective sacrifice of the family. It also has happy clips of Rajiv and Sonia campaigning together, having a meal in the North-east and with the children with Vote Congress ko dena playing in the background.
