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BJP takes stock of Sonia effect on campaign

The first round of Sonia Gandhi's election campaign has made the rest of the political parties sit up and take stock of its impact on the coming poll.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is officially not willing to make much of Sonia's campaign. All the same, the party feels that her presence in the electoral arena should not be underestimated.

"The Congress machinery has been galvanised to a certain extent by Sonia's entry but we will not go out on a personalised attack on her to counter it," said a top BJP functionary.

This does not mean that the party would refrain from attacking Sonia as a foreigner who waited for 17 years before she became an Indian citizen or as the Quottrocchis's friend who let Ottavio and his wife into the corridors of power.

But the attack would not be from the top leadership. The second-rung leaders, allies like Samata Party chief George Fernandes and local leadership would be raking up these issues.

In fact, George Fernandes had already fired the first salvo in an interview with Rediff On The Net, asking Sonia a number of uncomfortable questions.

BJP functionaries cite the example of the Janata Party government which came to power after the Emergency in 1977 with two-thirds majority but lost the public support very soon.

They feel that the way the Janata government had hounded late prime minister Indira Gandhi had made the government and the leaders unpopular.

So the BJP had decided not to unleash a full-fledged personal attack on Sonia, because it feels that on her own Sonia has already bungled by raking up Bofors and Ayodhya, two issues that show up the Congress in poor light.

It has been decided even at the time of the national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar last month that the national leaders would refrain from any of the controversial issues whereas state leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh would campaign in the name of Ram.

Now that Sonia has referred to her husband -- former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's intention to lay down his life for the Babri mosque -- the BJP is happy that the traditional hardcore Hindu voters would remain firmly with it.

As for the Muslim voters who were targeted, the BJP would be coming out with the details of Rajiv Gandhi's attempt to have negotiations with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

It was Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister who allowed the VHP to conduct the idol-laying (Shilanyas) function in Ayodhya, in 1989.

The BJP claims that, in his attempt to woo Hindu voters who had showed signs of swinging towards the BJP, Rajiv had asked the VHP to allow him to perform the Shilanyas himself.

Both the BJP and the United Front are confident that, by making Bofors an issue, Sonia has dug her political grave.

"Both the issues would boomerang on her," Communist Party of India's national secretary D Raja told Rediff On The Net.

In terms of Sonia's impact on the voters, though the UF leaders are not ready to acknowledge it, the BJP feels that in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh Sonia's campaign could make a difference for the Congress.

BJP observers feel that Sonia has entered politics as a long-term player and that the initial testing of waters is over. To field Priyanka is seen as one of her objectives.

UF leaders prophesy that, as the first round has come to a close, the mystique of the sphinx of 10 Janpath would soon be over and even if she draws crowds it would be just the curious ones who come to see the widow of Rajiv Gandhi.

The UF does not consider Sonia as a big factor to have a tactical course of attack against her, and its leaders feel that the party is in a shambles. For, since Sonia came in, its president Sitaram Kesri has been reduced to a nought.

The BJP would use the tears of another set of widows to offset Sonia's tears; the anti-Sikh riots of November 1984 is still vividly etched in the Sikh psyche in Delhi and Punjab.

Ayodhya would remain in the agenda in Uttar Pradesh and Bofors would be made a big issue in the rest of the country.

All the same, the top leaders would be talking to the masses about more serious issues like the government's stability and the leader's ability.

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