In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election campaign is already in full swing after being launched by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on October 24.

The rally, to be held at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds, was initially scheduled for November 3. Yesterday, it was postponed to November 9 and today the party pushed the rally forward to November 7. DPCC spokesman Satish Dhamija says the party has to wait for its final list of candidates to be announced on November 5. The rally, he maintains, will be held after that.

Today's advancing of the date of the rally, however, was a result of frantic efforts by the DPCC. Says a DPCC vice-president: ``Delhi leaders have been pleading with the Congress high command to commence the campaign as soon as possible to make up for lost time''.

Congress candidates started with a disadvantage in the last Parliamentary elections. They were left with less than a fortnight to prepare for the polls mainly because the election campaign was launched too late. The BJP had been one up on them as they had started well ahead Fearing a repeat, the DPCC leadership had been insisting that Sonia launch the campaign in the last week of October, about the same time the BJP kicked off its campaign.

Another fear is that if the rally is held after the candidates are announced, the rally might turn out to be a damp squib. ``There are 1,800 applications for 70 seats. After the tickets are distributed, there will be a lot of dissatisfaction and protest. This might have some impact on the prospects of the rally,'' says a leader, in-charge of organising the rally.

He has another reason for why the rally should be held before the ticket distribution. ``Considering that all the candidates are hoping to get tickets, they would try to bring in their supporters and impress their strength,'' he says.