Sonia to call on voters to ensure state-Centre uniformity

Party strategists had identified three thrust areas — employment, agriculture and infrastructure — for different regions of the state. In Mumbai, Sonia will promise fast infrastructural development and the Shiv Sena-BJP’s failure on this count. The campaign theme in Vidarbha will be employment-generation. For the sugar-belt, the steps taken by the UPA Government for the protection and promotion of the sugar industry will be the key issue in their campaign.

According to Congress strategists, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine, by overstretching the Veer Savarkar issue, had lost the advantage it could have had by hammering just the anti-incumbency factor. Uma Bharati’s Tiranga Yatra too had contributed to a dilution of the negative issues associated with an incumbent government.

They said BJP’s campaign manager Pramod Mahajan — who had sought to undo the damage by shifting the focus to issues of power, water and roads — was rather too late. Moreover, the cold-shoulder given by the Maharashtra BJP to the Tiranga Yatra had accelerated strife within the party.

Sonia, according to sources, will underline the long-standing party commitment to secularism and social harmony. With the Gujarat riots still fresh in their memory, party strategists felt religious and ethnic minorities — worried about their security — were likely to vote for the Congress-NCP alliance in large numbers.

By unleashing a high-power woman team comprising Sonia, general secretary in-charge Margaret Alva and state party president Prabha Rau, the Congress hopes to woo women voters.

Sources admitted that while Sushil Kumar Shinde as Chief Minister had failed to drum up party support-base among Dalits, BSP leader Mayawati, too, was far from emerging as a catalyst of the Dalit vote.

As far as rebels were concerned, the current scene had belied the worst fears of the party leadership. The scale of rebellion in both Congress and NCP, according to them, was lower than what was expected. The revolt in the Sena had also given some solace to the party.