Everyone is flying everywhere in UP

MANDATE 2004

BJP leaders packing in nearly 35-40 public meetings everyday.

With seven major Bharatiya Janata Party leaders descending for the final two phases of the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, helicopters are working overtime and so is the party's aviation co-ordinator, Chandrashekhar Sharma.

Sharma says the party leaders are packing in nearly 35-40 public meetings a day, split up among Kalyan Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj, Prakash Javadekar, Jaswant Singh, Kalraj Mishra, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and not to forget Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"We have four helicopters and three winged aircraft, and have clocked nearly 400 flying hours in the last few days of campaigning," says Sharma. What is more interesting, however, is the itinerary of these leaders.

With the exit polls not going in the BJP's favour, the concentration is on areas where it lost by narrow margins. According to senior party leaders, the target of 40 seats in Uttar Pradesh is crucial to the party.

Therefore, a typical programme for most leaders intersperses two to three constituencies that have been won by the Opposition, with just one stopover for a "friendly crowd" of BJP supporters.

For example, Rajnath Singh's programme for Friday includes stopovers in Phulpur, which is held by the Samajwadi Party, Hamirpur and Chail, both held by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Unnao (Samajwadi Party), while the friendly turf of Allahabad is expected to provide him some relief.

"The aim is to give that final push to tilt matters in our favour," said a senior party leader. The BJP general secretary in charge of the state, Pramod Mahajan, will also be holding meetings in Aonla, Phulpur and Shahjahanpur, while stopping over in Hardoi.

The Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are concentrating on defending their turf. Rahul Gandhi is expected in Kanpur on May 2. With all parties determined to go down in a blaze of glory, campaigning has already made the fortunes of several pilots.