PATNA, 1 February 2005 — On the campaign trail in Bihar, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi yesterday said the pressure will be on the new government in Bihar to improve the law and order situation in the state.

Although her rally in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand was canceled due to bad weather, the Congress president addressed a large gathering in Buxar in Bihar.

“We will put pressure on the new government in Bihar to do something about the law and order situation in the state,” said the Congress president.

Sonia urged the voters to prevent the BJP-led communal forces from coming to power and vote for the United Progressive Alliance candidates for a secular and stable government in Bihar.

She said that NDA is fully exposed now after the Gujarat incidents and lost the people’s faith. The Congress leader expressed thanks to the voters for pulling out the previous BJP-led government at center. She asked the people of Bihar to elect a secular government in Bihar in order to keep away BJP and other communal forces from power.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo, Lalu Prasad Yadav seems to be the favorite target of the opposition. All political parties are lashing out at Yadav and RJD in their electoral campaigns.

But ironically, their vitriolic speeches have everything but the name of their chief ministerial candidate.

“The chief minister will be decided later. The CM’s post is not important for me,” said Ram Vilas Paswan, president of LJP.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is at a loss to declare the name of its chief ministerial candidate and when questioned, BJP and Janata Dal-United leaders had no answer.

“It will not take time to decide the CM. It will be decided in minutes,” said Nitish Kumar, a leader of JD-U.

On the other hand, actor-turned BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha believes that the party should have put forward a name for the CM’s post. “There should be a face. If we are promising to rid the state of problems, we should say who is going to do it,” said Sinha.

RJD President Lalu Yadav however, seems to be making the most of the opposition’s indecisiveness.

Manmohan Sees Congress Government in Haryana

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday urged the electorate in Haryana to cast their vote in favor of his Congress party, saying it was set to return to power in the state, IANS adds.

“I see a Congress government coming to power in Haryana in this assembly poll,” he said while addressing his maiden election rally in Ambala.

The prime minister arrived at the Gandhi Grounds in the Ambala cantonment to a rousing welcome from Congress supporters drawn from nearly half a dozen assembly constituencies in the Ambala area.

His visit was aimed at securing the support of the sizable number of Sikhs — the community to which Manmohan Singh belongs — and Punjabi settlers among the electorate in Ambala.

Manmohan Singh’s entry into campaigning in Haryana was seen by many as a Congress move to project a clean image in its anti-corruption campaign aimed against the government of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala.

The rally’s venue was full of billboards and posters of contesting Congress candidates. While pictures of Sonia Gandhi and Bhajan Lal were prominent on these hoardings, quite a few had photographs of Manmohan Singh.

Elections to the 90-member Haryana Assembly are scheduled for Feb. 3.

“Manmohan Singh is the only politician who is clean and not involved in corruption. He will have an impact here,” said a 71-year-old Ram Singh who came from Ambala city for the rally.

The content of Manmohan Singh’s 18-minute speech at the rally centered mostly around issues of unemployment among youth, improving education and health care, and helping farmers and traders.

“All the development that has taken place so far was brought by Congress in this state. We want to rid you of this corrupt government. You have to strengthen me and Sonia Gandhi by voting for the Congress,” he said.

He did not fail to mention that he was prime minister because Sonia Gandhi had carried on the Congress tradition of sacrifice.

Manmohan Singh, the country’s first Sikh prime minister, reminded voters at least thrice in his speech that for the greater progress of Haryana, it was essential that the state should have a Congress government like the one at the center.

Though the prime minister refrained from personal references to Chautala or his Indian National Lok Dal party, he said the present government in Haryana was inefficient and corrupt. “Law and order has worsened under this government. There can be no progress in such a situation.”

Again without naming anyone, Manmohan Singh said institutions and universities had been set up in Haryana that were playing with the future of youths.

Incapable persons were being appointed vice chancellors of universities, leading to a lowering of educational standards.

The obvious reference was to the setting up of the Chaudhary Devi Lal University by the Chautala government and the erratic functioning of which has led to uncertainty about the fate of thousands of students.