BJP outshines Congress

Though Sonia is scheduled to pay another visit on April 17, the BJP seems to have stolen a march on the Congress, at least for now.

The BJP campaign seems to be way ahead of the Congress’ in Orissa. While most of the BJP's star campaigners — A.B. Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Venkaiah Naidu, Vijay Shanti, Vinod Khanna, Mukesh Khanna and Dara Singh — fanned out across the state in the past seven days, the only Congress star, Sonia Gandhi, was last seen on the horizon in mid-March.

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Though Sonia is scheduled to pay another visit on April 17, the BJP seems to have stolen a march on the Congress, at least for now.

When Vajpayee and BJD president Naveen Patnaik addressed a joint rally in Bhubaneswar on April 9, both bachelors trained their guns at the family politics within the Congress.

And now with surging crowds greeting Advani, the Congress must be having second thoughts on the revival of its fortunes in the state.