Replay 1999

August 18:
Ignoring the selling spree by foreign institutional investors FIIs, Indian markets continued with the bull run for the third successive day. Share prices staged a strong rally on major stock exchanges as local investors and speculators continued to build up positions ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

August 19:
Following objections raised by Opposition parties, the Election Commission passes orders barring the Government from screening any documentary on Kargil till voting for the Lok Sabha elections ended on October 3.

August 20:
The Election Commission bars newspapers and the electronic media from disseminating opinion poll results after 5 pm on September 3 till the last day of polling for the Lok Sabha on October 3.

August 22:
AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha snubs Sonia Gandhi, boycotts her visit to the state and abandons the programme of a joint election meeting in Villupuram in northern Tamil Nadu.

August 23:
Chief of Army Staff General Ved Prakash Malik tells political parties to leave the Army alone. The provocation: Vishwa Hindu Parishad VHP representatives descended upon South Block with around 20,000 rakhis for troops defending the frontiers along the Kargil borders.

August 24:
When Sonia Gandhi came to Chennai, Jayalalitha did not make a 10-km journey to meet her and instead sent two emissaries with a bouquet and a shawl. But Sonia declared that the Congress-AIADMK alliance was intact.

August 25:
In a significant departure from the BJP8217;s earlier stand, its general secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu said his party would never raise the Ayodhya issue again even if it were to secure a majority on its own in the elections.

August 27:
Sonia Gandhi indicates that the party would not be averse to forming a coalition government. She was on her way to Bellary with daughter Priyanka to kick off her election campaign.

Sonia Gandhi makes her visit to Bellary after filing her papers. Her unemotional and monotonous speeches did little to cheer the crowds and she said nothing new.

August 31:
The Samajwadi Party releases its manifesto, promising 8216;8216;a bounty8217;8217; to Muslims and the backward classes, while claiming it could form a Third Front Government in the post-poll scenario.

September 2:
The merger of the Janata Dal U, Lok Shakti and Samata Party 8212; which is virtually a merger of the dominant JD faction with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre 8212; was a political earthquake on the eve of the elections in Karnataka.

8226; The stock markets, which were waiting for the Sensex to cross the 5,000 mark, turn bearish. Share prices crashed further on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE with the Sensex nosediving by another 95 points and dropping below the 4,800 mark.

8226; As election rhetoric dives to newer depths, Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill calls for a ceasefire. With allegations, name-calling and character-assassinations flying thick and fast, the CEC wanted the poll campaign to shift from personalities to issues.

September 4:
The stage is set for the first phase of the polls. In Maharashtra, the polls were particularly crucial for rebel Congressman Sharad Pawar and his breakaway Nationalist Congress Party.

But the focus of polling will be Bellary from where Sonia is making her first bid for a Lok Sabha seat.