Also, the State Congress HQ is yet to acquire election colours while the BJP office is already sending out orders for cut-outs and other poll paraphernalia.

The Congress is yet to announce a list of candidates and while the BJP has declared its list except for three names which are to be announced on August 11. In fact, BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya says senior BJP leader L K Advani will file his nomination papers on August 12 for the Gandhinagar constituency.

The Congress is lagging behind in other areas too. The party's poll network is yet to be worked out though Keshubhai has already inaugurated the election office of Deepak Patel (Sathi) who is contesting from Anand constituency.

Instead of curious party workers and leaders engaged in hectic discussions, the Congress office on Monday evening had more journalists clamouring for the elusive candidate list than party workers. And when Congress spokesmen Hasmukh Patel was told that the BJP had hit the campaign trail while the Congress appeared to be groping in the dark, he said the party had started the campaign and, prompted by a journalist, cited Sonia Gandhi's meeting early last month. He even claimed that he had just returned from a taluka-level workers' convention.

But another party spokesman J V Momin was more frank. He admitted that ``we tend to lose three to four per cent of the votes because of starting late, which is usually a result of a delay in the announcement of the list of candidates.''

About 10 years ago, party workers would hit the campaign trail irrespective of the candidate list. ``Today, everything has to be started by the candidate, and this becomes possible only after the list is out,'' said Momin. Asked about the reason, he only said, ``Leadership crisis.''

At the Bharatiya Janata Party office, the election mood seemed to be catching up with party workers who were hanging around the party HQ in Khanpur and State general secretary Sanjay Joshi. During the day, Joshi held a meeting with senior party workers.

At one corner, banners and election material were waiting to be picked up and distributed. In fact, so busy was Joshi in the afternoon that he had told the operator not to put through any calls, including those from the press.

On Sunday, the Chief Minister addressed election rallies in Nadiad and Karamsad, the birthplace of Sardar Patel, as well as Bharatiya Janata Party Youth Wing activists.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has already wrapped up its 20-day statewide `Atalji Sandesh Yatra' which began on July 10, telling the story of how the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government was thrown out by one vote, how the Bharatiya Janata Party Government drove out the Pakistanis from Kargil and claiming that the Gujarat and Union Governments had provided a stable administration without hiking taxes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has laid out its poll network and finalised booth-wise partymen for every Assembly segment on the basis of ``one booth-10 youth.'' The process of issuing identity cards to them is on, claims Pandya. A meeting of active party workers of every Lok Sabha constituency has also been wrapped up.

Currently, present, party seniors are holding workshops of Bharatiya Janata Party workers to train them in public speaking. Pandya, on his way to address one such workshop in Vadodara, said, ``We have identified party workers in important districts who speak well and we are trying to hone their skills.''