Cong awaits Sonia

All seven Congress candidates for as many seats in Delhi are waiting for party president Sonia Gandhi to give one last thrust to their campaign for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.

All seven Congress candidates for as many seats in Delhi are waiting for party president Sonia Gandhi to give one last thrust to their campaign for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.

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While the BJP has paraded several film stars and almost the entire Union cabinet, the Congress has managed to get only Sunil Dutt and Rajesh Khanna campaign for them. Actors Namrata Shirodkar and Nagma did add glamour to the candidates' campaign but they hardly spoke in the election meetings.

Some Congress chief ministers could not campaign in Delhi due to elections in their own states. Maharashtra CM Sushil Kumar Shinde was the lone chief minister, apart from Delhi's won Sheila Dikshit, who has campaigned so far.

Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, too, has campaigned for the Congress. Lok Jan Shakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan too campaigned selectively for the party to woo the Dalit voters of eastern UP and Bihar.

RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav and an ally of the Congress went only to the places where he was invited by the candidates and did not undertake a planned itinerary.

"It was up to the candidates to invite the top leaders and stars in the absence of any centralised co-ordination," admitted a senior leader. He said that it was only in the Sonia rally that a co-ordinated effort was being made to make it a success.