The Congress's defensive campaign accuses the BJP of breaching canvassing ethics with last-minute promises, betrayal in buying US$215 million worth of Pakistani sugar, and of being hoodwinked by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in February when Vajpayee made his historic goodwill trip by bus to Lahore without tumbling to machinations in Kashmir.
The shrill charges by both sides provoked India's election chief, M.S. Gill, to appeal `to all political parties to focus on the issues before the electorate, not on personalities'. But there are no issues, only personalities, in a numbers game that boils down to a referendum on Vajpayee versus Gandhi.
RSS