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Politics Business Expressions General Sports Leisure States 16 February 1998   Advani may have been the target: Gupta The veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, Indrajit Gupta while addressing a meet-the-press programme said that the bomb in Coimbatore could very well have been targetted at the BJP president L K Advani's life. He also suspected the handiwork of foreign agents in the blast, however there was not any proof to substiantiate his claim.   BJP high-level committee to assess blast scenario A four-member high level committee of the BJP will visit Coimbatore on February 17 to speak to the locals and assess the situation in the aftermath of the serial blasts, and present a report to the party high command. Apart from the party's all India vice-president and south Chennai candidate, Jana Krishnamurthy senior leaders Madan Lal Khurana, Vijayakumar Malhotra and O Rajagopal are to spend a couple of days in the affected area. Bid on Advani similar to Premadasa assassination Police have found similarities in modus operandi in the assassination of former Sri Lankan president Ranatunge Premadasa and the planned attempt made at proposed election meeting of BJP president L K Advani in the city yesterday. Police said they were now examining this aspect after they stumbled on a bomb-hidden pushcart laden with plantains stationed near the venue of an election meeting to be addressed by Advani. The bomb had since been defused by a bomb disposal squad. UF should back Congress to check BJP, says VP In a significant poll-eve appeal, former PM VP Singh has said that secular parties including the Congress should be supported in constituencies where United Front constituents were not present to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party. He appealed to the people to bring secular forces to power that is capable of defeating the BJP.   Rebels rock a Cong bastion, Buta Singh leads the pack Kuchera, a sleepy little town 60 km from Nagaur in north-west Rajasthan, does not figure in any tourist map. Perhaps its only claim to fame is that it is home to the formidable Mirdha clan. Today, Kuchera is the nerve centre of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) do-or-die battle for the Jat-dominated belt, a vast Congress bastion where Nathu Ram Mirdha casts a giant shadow even two years after his death. Nandhari comes home to BJP The Janata Dal in Bihar suffered a major setback just a day ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha election when its senior-most leader and former minister Inder Singh Nandhari resigned from the primary membership of the party and joined the BJP.     Sharma's faux pas on leadership issue leaves BJP red-faced   Sonia should come clean on Bofors, says VP   Sonia trumps in the numbers game   Hazare, Seshan support Dharmadhikari   Modi blames Congress for "baseless" propaganda   Thackeray asserts Sena-BJP strength   EC bans cell phones near polling stations   Cong ropes in Sharmila to help Shiela on Seelampur trail   Youth do poll work for money, liquor dividend   No additional forces sent   Sonia best bet for PM, says Gadgil   Here fight is for booths, not votes   Terroism not an issue for Faridkot