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Heat and dust: how parties face up to electioneering

R R Nair in New Delhi

Congress president Sitaram Kesri is not to be seen. Rather, Congressmen do not want to be seen with Kesri. There are shops galore at the All India Congress Committee office selling anything from hot samosas and paan to posters, badges and Congress flags. But Kesri does not seem a saleable commodity. He does not figure in any poster or badge on sale.

He is missing from the list provided by AICC control room convener Major Dalbir Singh. And party headquarters has not received any requests for Kesri to campaign from any of its state units.

As the Congress gears up for the first round of polls on February 16, a list of national leaders who will tour the country has been drawn up, but the party president is not hot property.

Though an AICC joint secretary claimed that Kesri would travel to Bihar, none of his programmes have been confirmed yet.

"Soniaji is obviously the star campaigner and we have finalised her tour programme from February 2 to 5, after which there would be another whirlwind tour. We have also got requests for Dr Manmohan Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and Rajesh Pilot. Among the film stars Sunil Dutt is the most wanted person," Major Singh told Rediff On The NeT.

Sonia Gandhi and her daughter will tour the southern states in the first week of February. With the rest of the party yet to get ready, Priyanka has become an integral part of her mother's campaign.

Former finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been unexpectedly invited to tour the North East, apart from which he will campaign in urban areas. "There is no point in sending him to Bihar. He will campaign in cities like Bombay and Pune. And also in Punjab and Rajasthan where his community could be swayed by his presence," says an AICC official.

Community, in fact, figures rather heavily in the party's plans. Rajesh Pilot, a Gujjar, will tour Rajasthan, Haryana, even Uttar Pradesh, where members of his community form a considerable portion of the electorate. He will also travel to Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, areas where he struck a chord as internal security minister.

Apart from Madhya Pradesh, Scindia will travel to Maharashtra from where his ancestors came from. When the Congress kicked off its campaign from Bhubaneswar in Orissa on December 18, Kesri was accompanied by Scindia; the duo also travelled to Vijayawada to address meetings.

Congress vice-president Jitendra Prasada, Ahmed Patel, Tariq Anwar and Arif Baig are the other leaders who may campaign for the party. Ghulam Nabi Azad, convener of the campaign committee, is also scheduled to address a few meetings.

Apart from Sunil Dutt, the Congress's film brigade includes Rajesh Khanna and -- surprise, surprise -- Dilip Kumar, who was tipped to join the Samajwadi Party.

It is a change of scene at the Bharatiya Janata Party HQ, a few kilometres away. If no tour programme apart from Sonia's is ready at the AICC office, its leaders's itinerary is ready and available at the BJP office.

There are no paanwallahs or chole bhature hawkers in the BJP office precincts. The media cell is freshly painted. Poll schedules and pie charts adorn the walls. The charts are all about the party leaders's visibility in the electronic media.

Tour programmes are also available. Of course, prime ministerial candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP president Lal Kishinchand Advani lead the campaign, but there is no dearth of other leaders on the campaign trail.

Former party president Murli Manohar Joshi begins his south Indian tour on January 30. After covering Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, Joshi will reach his constituency, Allahabad, on February 3.

Other orators like Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh will also campaign for the party. High profile general secretary Pramod Mahajan may confine his oratory to Maharashtra and Goa. He may not go to Gujarat as the party is well entrenched there and moreover, he could be the target of former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela's attack.

One-man think-tank and general secretary Govindacharya is busy evolving strategies for Bihar and Orissa. "He will be in charge of all-India logistics," says a BJP official.

Young leaders like Bharatiya Yuva Morcha secretary Rameshwar Singh will tour Bihar. AP strongman and general secretary Venkaiah Naidu will be posted at HQ to man the control room; he is also in charge of the party's media campaign.

"Massive rallies and speeches help in creating a conducive environment. And since we have so many national leaders we certainly have an advantage. But the real work is to be done by the cadres. If we need more leaders, Pramod and Sushma Swaraj will campaign after the work is over in their respective constituencies," says a national executive member.

The BJP is satisfied with the initial media reaction to the way the party has projected Vajpayee as its prime ministerial candidate. "It is as if we are already in power," is how the BJP feels.

"It is too early," for the United Front to chalk out its campaign strategy, says Janata Dal spokesman Mohan Prakash. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and Railways Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will travel the most.

Deve Gowda begins his tour from Maharashtra on February 1 and will cover Bihar, his home state Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat, UP and even Jammu and Kashmir.

Paswan will spend time in Orissa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, Chief Ministers Jyoti Basu, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Muthuvel Karunanidhi and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta will address state-level meetings for the Front.

As most of the UF constituents are regional parties, the campaign is being left to the local leadership.

Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Politbureau members Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat will campaign for the party.

From the Communist Party of India, its general secretary A B Bardhan has already started touring Bihar and will extend his campaign to Madhya Pradesh and UP.

All the parties and their constituents have left the hard work for their workers as it is not possible for the national leaders to address meetings in many constituencies. The first phase of the election begins next fortnight and crowd pullers will be unable to traverse the length and breadth of the country in such a short span of time, is the general opinion.

The most important forum for most leaders is Doordarshan. "It has the maximum reach. Even poor villages have a television set. So leaders will be available in Delhi to appear on these shows," says D Raja, national secretary, CPI.

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