Words8230; were all he had

VYARA/RAJKOT, Sept 2: They came, they saw, they were conquered. Adivasis from the tribal heartlands, urban traders, housewives, social wo...

VYARA/RAJKOT, Sept 2: They came, they saw, they were conquered. Adivasis from the tribal heartlands, urban traders, housewives, social workers8230;All captivated by the legendary oratory of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. There were no below-the-belt digs, no unsavoury references, not even the biting wit that is customary to him. Just simple talk straight from the heart.

8220;This is what I have come to hear and it8217;s wonderful,8221; said Prafulbhai Desani. 8220;This man is innocent,8221; said a group of traders.

8220;Jaisi praja, vaisi lagni aur vaisa hi neta8221;, smiled Vashabhai, who came all the way from Jasdan taluka8217;s Sanada village to Rajkot. 8220;He is the true leader of the people and a great orator8221;, said Jaysukhbhai Patel.

Vajpayee touched on a variety of themes, but his pet topic was obviously the stability issue. 8220;The Lok Sabha is elected for five years but this is the third election in three years, thanks to the Congress8221;, he said in Vyara. 8220;The Congress pulled down all three governments and betrayed the people. The people should punish it for its sins. The money spent on election could have been used for roads, water, hospital and schools.8221;

8220;They Congress were jealous that we were governing so well. They couldn8217;t tolerate our rising popularity. They knew people had started liking us and they decided we should go. In the next two days you will be voting; your vote should last the next five years,8221; he told the crowd in Rajkot.

Then, when the mood of the crowd warmed up to him, he unleashed a tirade against the Congress. With the crowd waiting in silent expectation, he paused for a moment and said: 8220;We lost by one vote. One vote. Couldn8217;t we have arranged for it? Couldn8217;t we have bought it off? Bazaar mein bahut maal tha. Bikne wale bhi the. Lekin kharidne wale nahi the,8221; he said to rapturous applause. And before the applause died, he declared: 8220;We refused to buy that one vote because our ethics did not allow us. And here am I asking for your votes so that we don8217;t have to depend on that one vote again.8221;

He harped on the five-year blueprint8217; that the BJP had drawn up. 8220;We had started projects which we could not execute because our government was pulled down by the Congress. If you elect the BJP, we assure you that in five years we will provide water, roads, schools and a hospital to every village in the country. We have prepared a blueprint but we need your mandate for five years.8221;

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Then it was time for local issues. In Vyara, part of Mandvi constituency, he found easy meat in the performance of incompetent8217; incumbent and Congress candidate Chhitubhai Gamit. One factory after another run by Gamit has been closed over the past two years, affecting more than 40,000 tribal families. Gamit8217;s winning margin he has been elected seven times has come down from several lakhs to a few thousand as committed Congress voters have shifted their allegiance.