Feb 15: `Person to person and kitchen to kitchen' approach has been adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party to ensure the victory of its prime ministerial candidate Atal Behari Vajpayee from Lucknow.The state's minister for housing and urban development Lalit Tandon, who is the chief election agent of Vajpayee and Shiv Kumar Sharma, personal secretary of Vajpayee said that despite being certain of the victory, ``we have not left anything to chance. We have adopted an intense campaigning with a personal touch''.
The Samajwadi Party nominee Muzaffar Ali is fighting a lonely battle. Even his party leaders are not taking much interest in his campaign. A senior leader and one of the close aides of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said, ``Ali has been adopted by us''.
In fact, his candidature was announced in a very casual manner at a press conference by Yadav. Ali, however, is contesting the poll with all seriousness. Not all Samajwadi Party workers are working for him, unlike the 1996 electionswhen Raj Babbar contested against Vajpayee, Samajwadi Party tried to make it into a big fanfare. This time the party is largely concentrating in the Muslim dominated area. Ali hopes to get all the Shia votes. In the last election a small percentage had voted for Vajpayee.
Ali says the constituency needs a man, who would stay in the area and not based in Delhi. His wife, and son are actively helping him in the campaigning. Ali, hails from the former princely state of Kotware, and says he is aware of the people's problems and is sure that they would vote for him. Stability or good governance propagated by Vajpayee are no issues for Ali. ``These are just high sounding slogans'', he says.
However, there are not many takers for Muzaffar Ali's views. For a city of government employees, officers, lawyers, teachers, intellectuals and a large middle class population, stability and corruption are of primary concern for the people. Whosoever you ask, rickshawpuller, pan vendor or any intellectual, they say, ``whoelse but Atalji'. Despite such a wide support, Tandon is not taking any chance. Each of the 1,752 polling booths will be overseen by 20 youth. Each of the five BJP MLAs in the constituency, 110 municipal corporators and 330 BJP ward incharges have been put on alert. ``We are determined to contact every house and every voter'', Tandon added. Apart from Tandon all these operations are being overseen by Sharma and P.K. Restogi, who was a manager in a local influential newspaper.
Vajpayee himself has not taken campaigning lightly. He is to address over 20 public meetings. ``There will be street corner meetings. It helps develop a personal support'', Sharma said.
"During the last 18 months, he has tended the area very well. Almost every weekend, he used to visit the constituency and meet anyone who called on him", said Sharma.
However, despite brokering an agreement between Shias and Sunnis by the Kalyan Singh government, the BJP is unable to take the benefit of it. Shia religious leader Kalbe Javvad toldThe Financial Express that Muslims would vote for Samajwadi Party. His reason was that the BJP has not been able to enjoy the trust of Muslims. The Samajwadi Party can get some OBC votes as well. But if there is an masse voting by Muslims, the OBCs could turn to the BJP.
Vajpayee had polled 3.94 lakh votes and had won the seat by a margin of over 1.18 lakh in the 1996 elections. ``Now the aim is to increase the margin'', said Tandon. But Sharma is keeping his fingers crossed. ``We are trying to ensure that the BJP cadre does not become complacent'', Sharma said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
