AMETHI: The BJP campaigners' list is all of three words: Atal, mini-Atal, et al. Atal, of course, is the Prime Minister; et al, the rest of the overshadowed BJP brood. The mini-Atal is a BJP discovery: a 17-year-old, Class XI student who looks, walks and now talks like Vajpayee. Suneet Agarwal, the son of a Bareilly-based small garment merchant, has been starring in the party's campaign from Bellary to Calcutta to Madhya Pradesh to Delhi and now here, all on the strength of his ability to copy Vajpayee's mannerisms to the T.

He climbs onto the stage dressed in a well-ironed pajama-kurta and picks up the microphone, leaving the audience amazed at his resemblance to Vajpayee. He started off in Bellary, where he put on his Atal act alongside Sushma Swaraj, pitted against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in as many as 35 meetings. The next person to avail of his services was BJP senior leader L.K. Advani, who took Suneet with him to his Calcutta rallies. Since then, he has accompaniedMurli Manohar Joshi in Madhya Pradesh, Shatrughan Sinha in Hubli (Karnataka) and Govindacharya in Delhi. ``I have been out of home for one-and-a-half months touring various parts of the country,'' Suneet says, adding that he had taken special leave from his college in Ranikhet for the campaign exercise.

However, he vehemently denies that he imitates the Prime Minister. ``It will mean disrespect to Vajpayeeji...I don't imitate him, but I have somehow got some of his mannerisms,'' he says. Suneet's father, Inder Kumar Agarwal, who is chaperoning his son in Amethi, recalls that Suneet picked up the ``style'' when he was barely seven, and two years before he even met Vajpayee.

The 17-year-old says the ``gift'' was revealed when he visited Ayodhya to participate in the kar seva in 1989 as a seven-year-old. ``I requested a senior sant (priest) to allow me to speak to the crowd which had gathered,'' he recalls. ``It was only after I refused to budge from the podium that the organisers allowed me tospeak...Later, people told me that my gestures and delivery resembled that of Vajpayee.''

Suneet had put his skill to use in the 1991, 1996 and 1998 parliamentary polls as well, and now addressing a rally has almost become routine. He claims to have shared the stage with Vajpayee alone over 20 times in the past 10 years. It was former Delhi CM Madan Lal Khurana who coined the sobriquet ``mini-Atal'' after seeing him in action in Moradabad during the 1991 polls.

Suneet's ultimate aim is to join politics, though a degree in law also figures on the agenda. He seems to be following in the right footsteps.CALCUTTA: Fishing in Calcutta's flooded waters, the BJP may be stepping out of its depth. With the September 24 and 25 rains leaving the city and most of the state submerged, the Trinamool-BJP combine has seen a golden opportunity to pour water on the ruling Marxists' hopes. In his maiden speech in Calcutta on Monday, Atal Behari Vajpayee said: ``Every city gets rains, it's natural. But an efficient drainagesystem depends on an efficient government. Going by the reports I get about the state, sometimes I wonder whether there is any government in the state or not.''

Supporters of the party, meanwhile, have descended on the flooded Dum Dum, Bangur and Lake Town areas to distribute potatoes adorned with the BJP's lotus symbol. A disgusted resident remarks: ``We are getting potatoes, but I don't know whether that will ensure them votes.''

CALCUTTA: However, the BJP potato tactic has been a rare gimmick in the state's generally lacklusture election. The only star who came to West Bengal, Burdwan that is, for campaigning was Shatrughan Sinha, but even he chose to stay away from Calcutta. Even Tollywood star Moon Moon Sen has been campaigning for the Trinamool in Tripura. Perhaps her marriage into the royal family of Tripura had something to do with her decision to keep off West Bengal.

-- UNI AND Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay