Heirs To A Great Tradition?

Congress president Sonia Gandhi took the battle right into the BJP camp when she closed her election campaign by holding an impressive rally in Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's Lucknow constituency.

Vajpayee, who could not hold a meeting in Gandhi's Amethi constituency on Thursday due to rains, is camping in Lucknow for the last two days.

Sonia's rally here has send a strong and clear message that Congress is making a determined effort to form government at the Centre.

"These days the biggest issue before them (BJP) is to criticise me. This is their only manifesto for this election," a fuming Sonia Gandhi told a cheering crowd, mostly consisted of youth.

Word and issues picked by Gandhi were the same as her other speeches, but it was enough to send a panic wave in the Vajpayee camp.

Though opinion is divided on whether Vajpayee could lose Lucknow which he won by a margin of over two lakh votes only last year. None seem to disagree that Vajpayee's votes would be drastically reduced.

Congress candidate Karan Singh appeared ecstatic after Sonia's rally and got immediately engaged in the progress of talks already on with the BSP to withdraw from the race in favour of the Congress.

Sonia Gandhi looked tired as she climbed down from the stage with son Rahul in tow. She told reporters, "I feel little relieved. It has been tough." Even yesterday, she had addressed four rallies -- at Faizabad, Gonda, Misrikh and finally at Lucknow.

She was not willing to hazard a guess on the number of seats her party is expected to win and said "Lets wait, its only a few more days."

The most significant factor that appears to have prompted Gandhi to bitterly attack Vajpayee and the BJP is the decision of Vajpayee to campaign against her, first in Bellary, and then in Amethi on Thursday.

Gandhi targeted the Vajpayee government, and the BJP at all the four rallies yesterday. She did not criticise or even mention the non-BJP allies in the NDA or their leaders in her speeches.

She attacked Vajpayee for his blaming of Congress for the fall of his government.

Gandhi said he was doing so as he knew people would ask questions on the feasibility of a 24-party coalition when even an 18-party coalition could not survive.

Gandhi then talked of the internal squabbles within the BJP in UP and how the state government employee, teachers and other poorer section of the population had forgotten about their BJP affiliation and were determined to defeat the BJP.