Jaitley pleads, PM agrees to evening rallies

Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee has given in to the Gujarat BJP’s insistence that he change his campaign pattern and address election rall...

Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee has given in to the Gujarat BJP’s insistence that he change his campaign pattern and address election rallies only after sunset.

Although the PM’s securitymen were not in favour of it, the BJP’s state unit, represented by Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s main campaign manager Arun Jaitley, is believed to have been adamant.

The decision to get Vajpayee to Gujarat only in the evening is said to have been taken after the BJP felt the state unit may not be able to rustle up a respectable crowd during the day, especially in rural areas.

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Not wanting to show themselves up in front of the Prime Minister, the state leadership is believed to have decided to get him to revert back to the traditional Jan Sangh pattern of campaigning in urban areas in the evening when its trader base is free from its day’s work and can attend election rallies.

It appears that the party is more confident of getting a large enough audience for the PM in the urban areas than in the rural belt. Significantly, Vajpayee has been kept away from former CM Keshubhai Patel’s stronghold, Saurashtra. He will go to four big cities — Jamnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad and Vadodara. The Patel community, about whose affiliations this time the BJP is unsure, is not a dominant factor here.

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