If the pollsters have abandoned the party emphatically and given a clear mandate to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the contributors to the party fund, who were making a beeline for 10 Janpath until March this year, have simply vanished. And in a clear indication of which way the wind is blowing, aviation companies now want full advance payment for hiring out aircraft to fly Sonia for campaigning.

The AICC establishment is just adding to her woes. Sonia wanted to release the party's manifesto on August 12, finalise the list of candidates for the first phase by August 15 and launch her campaign from Andhra Pradesh the next day.

The aircraft were booked with token money paid for the first three days for six states -- over 7000 km. But the AICC failed to work out her programme. The PCCs wanted Sonia to tourconstituencies of their choice benefiting either the state unit chiefs or supporters of the chief ministers. The AICC general secretaries in charge of the states rejected them and drew up new itineraries, according to their own

whims and fancies.

When the programme landed at the CP's desk -- as Sonia Gandhi's office is known at the AICC -- she threw it in the waste paper basket. Her computer had given her the statistics that the Congress had won 90 Lok Sabha seats with a margin of 5 per cent and more during the 1998 polls. Therefore, she wished to focus on the remaining 50 seats which the party had won by less than 5 per cent votes and another 90 which the party lost by less than 10 per cent votes.

When she sent out messages for changing the programmes, the establishment said the candidates were not in place in certain constituencies, and even if their names have been announced, they would take some more time to mobilise people for the rally. Secondly, they would like to organise her programme onlyin the last week of August.

That's why the first leg got cancelled. The payments made to the companies are now in jeopardy even as the party is facing difficulty in getting fresh bookings with the aviation companies refusing to play ball.

Meanwhile, Vajpayee's campaign has begun while Advani is out for the next four days. The BSP's Kanshi Ram has more than enough money to fly in choppers all the time. Now, Sonia has decided to visit Tamil Nadu in a bid to bolster the chances of the Congress-AIADMK front on August 22 when she is scheduled to address a public meeting with J Jayalalitha at Villupuram.