PM-Sonia clash8217; washed out

The rally ground in Amethi town was bursting at the seams and it started drizzling as soon as she climbed the podium. The drizzle soon turned into a heavy downpour yet not a single person left his place. Fully drenched,they were all ears to their bahu. The crowd frequently punctuated Sonia8217;s speech with slogans hailing her and her party. The entire audience raised their hands when at the end of her speech in Hindi, she said Jai Hind three times, probably trying to prove her patriotism to BJP leaders.

She began with: Kya bataun, kya kahun, dil bhar aaya hai. Mujhe yaad aa raha hai jab Sanjay Gandhi ki mrityu ke baad Indiraji Rajivji ko lekar yahan ayeen aur kaha ki ab mera ek hi beta hai aur main use bhi apko saunp rahi hoon I don8217;t know what to say and how. I am choked with emotion. I remember the day when, after Sanjay Gandhi8217;s death, Indira brought Rajiv here and gave her only surviving son to you.8221;

She also asserted that she did not want to join politics after Rajiv8217;s death but had to do it perforce because 8220;the forces against whom Nehruji, Indiraji and Rajivji waged a war all their life were getting stronger.8221;

She also reminded the people that Amethi was the karmabhumi of herfamily and this is why she was seeking to serve the people of this constituency. She exhorted them to vote for the Congress to make 8220;Sonia Gandhi win.8221;

Sonia was accompanied by her son Rahul while daughter Priyanka and son-in-law Robert Vadra were campaigning elsewhere in the constituency. 8220;We had several loose ends to sew before the last day of polling tomorrow which is why I am not accompanying my mother,8221; Priyanka told The Indian Express in Gauriganj, 20 km from Amethi. Asked what her target was she said, 8220;To surpass the margin 3 lakh votes by which my father had defeated my aunt Maneka here in 1984.8221;

Sonia was supposed to land at Fursatganj airport in Rae Bareli and address four public meetings in her constituency between 11 am and 3 pm. Vajpayee was scheduled for only one meeting in Amethi, only 15 km away from the venue of Sonia8217;s meeting. She, however, had to change her plans late Thursday night because of refusal of permission by the district administration, Congress leadersalleged.

She had to land at Sultanpur and hop in to a helicopter to her meeting venues, starting from Jagdishpur, about 100 km from Salon, where she was originally scheduled at address a meeting at 11 am. Change of schedule notwithstanding, she drew huge and more importantly highly responsive crowds at all the four meeting venues. It was a spontaneous crowd, no vehicles were used to herd them in.

In sharp contrast was the PM8217;s aborted rally organised by BJP candidate Sanjay Singh. At least 100 tractor-trollies, 50 tempos and several buses and trucks had brought people to the meeting venue. Of course, it took people almost half-an-hour to come out of both rallies: Sonia8217;s because of the sea of people blocking narrow Amethi roads and Vajpayee8217;s because of chaos created by campaign vehicles.

Vajpayee, however, did manage to address a rally, albeit briefly due to sudden showers, in Rae Bareli for his party candidate Arun Nehru in the afternoon. BJP had apparently pulled all stops in Amethi in an attempt tostall Sonia8217;s maiden entry into Parliament. At least 500 Swadeshi Jagran Manch workers dressed in white T-shirts with Videshi hatao, swadeshi lao scribbled on them, had been deployed in both rallies to campaign against Sonia8217;s foreign origin.