Almost every leader who can influence even a small section of his community has been given a chopper to swing the voter. Since polling is to take place in the remaining 55 Lok Sabha seats on September 25 and October 3, the Congress is leaving nothing to chance.

While Sonia Gandhi has already spent two days in the fourth phase in UP, she may be visiting the state again before the polling ends. Since the party does not have much at stake in Bihar and West Bengal, where polling is to take place in the remaining phases, it can afford to concentrate on UP which did not return a single MP during the 1998 polls.

It is felt that the upper castes, angry with the Kalyan Singh Government's misrule, can be persuaded to return to the Congressif serious efforts are made even at this late stage. After Sonia and Priyanka Vadra, Rajesh Pilot is perhaps the only leader who is most sought after by the party candidates in the state. He has been given a helicopter and also a jet to coordinate his campaign.

Similarly, Madhavrao Scindia, Manmohan Singh, Mohsina Kidwai, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and a host of other leaders will fly all over UP. Arjun Singh, Azad and Mohsina, however, have been given one helicopter so that they can address meetings together. While Dilip Kumar is drawing huge crowds in rallies in UP, Sunil Dutt has also been put into operation in UP alone to multiply the gains.

Though the ratings of Rajesh Khanna have come down, he has also been given a chopper. Efforts are being made to mobilise the support of other film stars for the party. Since reports of a slide in the BJP's popular base started pouring in, the response to Congress among the film and trade industry has increased.

At a high-level meeting held onSunday at 10 Janpath where the party's poll strategy was discussed, it was decided that Sonia should campaign against PM Vajpayee in Lucknow and mobilise support in favour of party nominee Karan Singh. She will visit Lucknow during her last leg of campaigning on September 29. No decision, however, has been taken with regard to Sonia's programme in Ballia from where former PM Chandra Shekhar is contesting.

Samajwadi Party did not field a candidate and BJP is equally keen to see him in the 13th Lok Sabha. The party is no more feeling the cash crunch now and party candidates are feeling more comfortable.