Stars8217; campaign washed out

The mood at the Sonia Gandhi rally at Kedaribaug in Wanawadi was different. Ab ki bari bahu hamari

proclaimed the hoardings dotting the grounds. The cut-outs of other prominent party leaders were conspicuous by their absence. The message was quite clear. It was a Sonia Gandhi show all the way. Only the rains played spoilsport.

Since the meeting was being held at the same venue after a period of around 16 months, comparisons with the last rally were inevitable. 8220;What are the crowds like,8221; a party worker asked another who stood on a chair to trying to gauge the crowd response. 8220;Of course, the grounds are full. But nothing like the previous time,8221; he said shaking his head, passing a glance over the 35-acre grounds.

The change was apparent. The Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, who shared the dais with Sonia Gandhi in the last rally, was the target of the party leaders this time. And Suresh Kalmadi, who had Atal Behari Vajpayee in attendance for his rally, was ironically sitting next to Sonia Gandhi.

The first few minutes before the arrival of Sonia Gandhi had the crowds impatient, bogged down as they were by the pouring rains.

But the curiosity to see the Gandhi bahu prevailed. Braving the rains, women turned out in large numbers to watch her and perhaps catch a glimpse of her children. 8220;Who will coming this time. Will it be Rahul or Priyanka?8221; said some. All eyes looked out for Sonia Gandhi8217;s arrival. 8220;She will be here in the next two minutes,8221; the party workers announced, trying to pacify the restive crowd.

8220;Isn8217;t she beautiful,8221; one of them gushed as Sonia Gandhi dressed in a simple off-white cotton saree with a yellow border, quickly walked up the stage accompanied by son Rahul who won over the crowds with his shy smile. As she waved to the crowds in the first few minutes, there was a roar of approval from the crowds, 8220;Sonia Gandhi zindabad

8221;. All this while, the heavy downpour continued, but the crowds did not seem to mind it one bit.

Although the crowds politely clapped when Sonia Gandhi was presented a memento of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, there were loud cheers for Rahul Gandhi who was gifted a typical Puneri pagdi and a traditional Uparna. Rahul, in his new attire, walked across the stage and waved out to the wildly-cheering crowds.

Unlike Bhor, where Sonia began her speech in chaste Marathi, this time, she preferred to speak in Hindi for a full ten minutes. The diction was quite clear and so were the issues. She had done her homework and took Puneites by surprise when she referred to the merger of 36 villages in the Pune Municipal Corporation.

Elsewhere, Nationalist Congress Party NCP leader Sharad Pawar tried to enthuse his supporters in the city and its rural outskirts at the fag end of his campaign for the second phase of polls.

Response to five of his ten public meetings in the district on Wednesday saw a drastic fall. While explaining that the rains which lashed the city was the main reason for the slim audience, the NCP leaders claimed that there was very little response to the Sonia Gandhi meeting.

Pawar had already addressed public rallies at Mandavgan Pharata near Shirur, Uruli, Bhor and Velha and was at Saswad when it started raining in the city. Each of the meetings, according to the estimate of the police, had over 10,000 audiance.

However, there was a drastic fall in the response to his meetings in the urban areas of Hadapsar, Bhople Chowk in Pune Cantonment, Vivekanand Statue at Padmavati, Bopodi, Phadke Haud chowk, Ganj Peth and Sant Kabir Chowk. The meeting at Hadapsar was attended by about 5,000 supporters and the number dropped further to 2,000 in the other meetings.

Since morning, Pawar was travelling in a helicopter. He was forced to bring it down at Hadapsar due to bad weather. Men in soaked clothes burst firecrackers and shouted slogans as his entourage of ten vehicles arrived at Hadapsar and Pawar alighted from a grey Toyota. He spoke for nearly 25 minutes and the people braved the rains and listened to him.

The crowd numbered a mere 2,000 when Pawar reached Pune Cantonment. He was already more than one-and-a-half hours behind schedule. Most of the audience had taken refuge in nearby shops and restaurants, as local leaders tried their best to convince them not to go away.

The election meetings of Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan in the city were delayed due to the rains. Although he arrived in the city well in time, the party campaign managers apprehended that the attendance for the meetings would be very thin. The meeting in Bibewadi was delayed by two hours and started at 8.30 pm, after the rains had stopped.

The attendance at the meeting was fairly large and the people waited patiently for Mahajan8217;s speech.

Mahajan, who spoke in Marathi, began his speech by tendering 8220;an apology on behalf of Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar8221;, who he said were responsible for forcing elections on the country and that is why people had to wait in the rains to hear the election speech.