On the other hand, sycophantic requests are pouring in from most of the states for both mother and son as star campaigners. Strangely, Sonia Gandhi has chosen to spend most of her time electioneering in Tamil Nadu where the party's chances are poor. While she stood next to beleaguered DMK Chief M Karunanidhi in a show of coalition solidarity at a rally, Rahul avoided all contact with the DMK's top leadership, choosing to throw weight only behind candidates of his choice such as K T Benny in Kerala. Many state leaders have made it clear that it is not worth spending huge amounts of money on Manmohan Singh's sparsely attended rallies; even some of Sonia's have been very thinly attended. As a result, in the states/UTs where the Congress is confident of winning — Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry — the party is taking no chances by presenting Manmohan in public since he is perceived as an inefficient commander who is helpless in reining in recalcitrant ministers. Manmohan's supporters are dismayed by the fact the Congress leadership has decided to distance itself from its own government which, ironically, was only following party diktats right from the beginning. It has finally dawned on them — Brand Gandhi is considerably more powerful and durable than the Singh Durbar is. Read the full report here.
Source: Prabhu Chawla, Express Buzz.
