The non-Congress parties are forced to rethink their electoral strategies following Sonia Gandhi's unexpected  offensive on Bofors and Babri Masjid.

The shoot-and-scoot offensive launched by Sonia Gandhi has her adversaries changing battle strategy midstream. The BJP had imagined that it was setting the agenda for Election '98. Till Mona Lisa began talking -- in different tongues to different audiences. Though Sonia appears to have identified the BJP as her principal opponent by raising Bofors and Babri Masjid, she has also taken the battle to the United Front (UF) camp. By going on the offensive on the two Big Bs that contributed to the Congress decline, she has changed the rules of the game.

With its most liberal face currently on display the BJP is uncomfortable with any campaign that touches on Babri Masjid. And Sonia's demand that the Bofors names be released has already forced the BJP to take the Italian bahu head on. The party has made predictable noises about the Italian link of the kickbacks recipients. But it does not suit the BJP to make corruption an issue at a time when it has taken known criminals on board and is tomtomming its alliance with aiadmk supremo J. Jayalalitha who is involved in several corruption cases. Jayalalitha has however done her bit by attacking Sonia, alleging that her silence on the Jain Commission report during her Sriperumbudur rally pointed to a "conspiracy between Congress and Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK-TMC combine".

Says a BJP vice-president: "Our internal assessment is that Sonia will make a difference to Congress fortunes -- but only in areas like the south and Orissa where it is strong. Not in the north." The party will orchestrate its counter-offensive very carefully. It will be left to the second-rung leadership, particularly high-profile women like Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharati, to attack the Gandhi family bahu. Party President L.K. Advani insists that "ours will continue to be a positive campaign that will focus on stability and the ability of Atal Bihari Vajpayee".

For all the aloofness that the BJP leadership may maintain, by the time the contest reaches the eyeball-to-eyeball level, there will be a communal subtext to the proceedings. In states like Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, where the RSS-VHP cadres have come into conflict with Christian missionaries, this rhetoric could turn nasty. And in strongholds like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, a BJP campaign will inevitably tap Hindutva sentiments. Election Commission restrictions may curb the religious rhetoric of the more visible campaigners. But it will eventually boil down to Rome Raj versus Ram Raj; Bharat Mata versus Italian pretender.

UF constituents will tap their own brand of jingoism. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, whose TDP is fighting a resurgent Congress, has positioned himself as the Telugu bidda versus the Italian Sonia. "Our freedom struggle was aimed at getting rid of foreign rule," he says, adding dramatically, "How can we hand over power to a foreigner in the 50th year of Independence?" Unlike the BJP, the UF leadership is joining the battle with its guns blazing -- which is why the silence of former prime minister and Bofors hero V.P. Singh is so intriguing.

At a UF Core Committee meeting in Hyderabad, Prime Minister I.K. Gujral told his colleagues that the Government was yet to receive the final Bofors documents. "Sonia's demand that the names be made public is nothing but an attempt to provoke us into breaking our understanding with the Swiss courts so that the ultimate beneficiaries get away," he said. Adds CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan: "She has done us a favour by attacking us on Bofors. Now we can put her in her place."

Though Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav does not share the shrill anti-Congress postures of some of his colleagues, he has his own reasons for targeting Sonia. Mulayam considers the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh his personal jagir and would naturally frown upon any attempt by the Congress to redeem itself with the community. In response to Sonia's utterances on the Babri Masjid, he declared: "The Congress was responsible for unlocking the gates of the masjid and remained passive when it was demolished. So why shed tears now?"

But it was the colourful Karnataka Chief Minister J.H. Patel who added a new dimension to the Ram Raj versus Rome Raj rhetoric. "The UF," he said, "will respond with Gram Raj."

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