Sonia8217;s post-Kargil show a flop

They had expected a large turn out, as was the case in 1998 when Sonia Gandhi had visited Benia Bagh to campaign for the party candidate, Ratnakar Pandey. But despite herculean efforts by the fire-brand UPCC chief, Salman Khursheed, hardly 15,000 made it to the rally yesterday.

What has caused more anxiety at the All India Congress Committee AICC headquarters here is the fact that members of the minority community who resided in large numbers around Benia Bagh, did not turn up either. Since Salman Khursheed had been shouting from the roof-tops about making a serious dent among the Muslims, yesterday8217;s rally belied his claim.

Asenior party member, who did not want to be quoted, explained that Muslims stayed away as there was no mobilisation. Another reason cited was that Sonia was coming to the city to visit the Vishwanath Temple. The visit to the temple was later dropped as it created a religious controversy.

To compensate that, it was decided that Sonia would unveil a statue of late Kamlapati Tripathi and a large gathering of pandits would chant slokas at the venue blessing her as per the Hindu rites.

The rally also brought in open chinks in the party8217;s capability to put up a united face. It was strange that almost all senior leaders including Mohsina Kidwai, Jitendra Prasada and Narain Dutt Tiwari were absent at the Sonia8217;s first public meeting in UP after she took up the party chief post. None of them were available in the Capital today. But sources close to them said that they were not even informed of the rally by the PCC, leave aside inviting them.

While the Congress is a troubled lot today, its poor showing in therally has gladdened the hearts of the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, for different reasons. The BJP leaders assert that the flop show is proof of Atal Behari Vajpayee8217;s popularity and the Samajwadi Party is jubilant of retaining its Muslim vote bank.

When contacted, AICC secretary Anil Shastri who was present at the rally said that when Vajpayee had addressed a similar rally a few months ago he had drawn a much less crowd. Secondly, scorching heat contributed to keeping people from attending the rally, he said.

Now, the party is not ready to take any chances. It is determined to make the June 28 rally at Mau a success. Kalpnath Rai who is considered a good organiser, is likely to mobilise massive crowd in his constituency.

Sonia8217;s plans for Agra visit, however, has been put in the cold storage for the time being.