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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has been thrown into a tizzy by latest reports from Uttar Pradesh that Amitabh Bachchan, the Samajwadi Party's star campaigner, is hurting the ruling party's prospects.
"Our leadership is worried that Amitabh Bachchan's electoral campaign is giving the Samajwadi Party good results," admitted a BJP vice-president. "Because of him our anticipated 200 seats in the state have decreased to 175. If he keeps up the tempo, he could make a further dent."
The vice-president contended that Bachchan's campaign in the company of his actress wife Jaya had created a "storm" about which the state BJP unit had reported to the party high command.
"At the moment, we really don't have an answer [to Amitabh]," he said, hoping that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tour of Uttar Pradesh, likely to begin on February 9, would see his oratorical skills retrieving some ground for the BJP.
This setback was why the BJP, like the Congress earlier, had complained to the Election Commission that the Samajwadi Party was unfairly using blood donation camps to extract political mileage by featuring the Bachchans, he said.
But Election Commission spokesman A N Jha has told the complainants that the body will take up the matter only after the election and that the Big B is free to campaign for any party.
Like envious Congress workers, BJP activists in the party's Ashoka Road headquarters are openly saying that Amitabh's rendition of the popular film song from Laawaris, Mere angne mein tumhara kya kaam hai, is having a magical effect on voters flocking to see him in their thousands.
Accompanied by a makeshift band, Amitabh, the BJP leader pointed out, is sending the thrilled audiences into frenzied bouts of dancing, cheering and clapping.
But BJP spokesman Sunil Shastri rubbished the suggestion that the film star's campaign was adversely affecting his party. "I already told you people that we are confident of retaining power in Uttar Pradesh," Shastri insisted. "A film personality might draw crowds, but in the ultimate analysis, nobody can stop us from forming the government."
EARLIER REPORTS: Congress complains to CEC about Amitabh Amitabh won't affect UP electoral outcome: Arjun Singh Amitabh's 'betrayal' irks Congressmen
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