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Kochi prepares for Sonia's coming

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

At the huge Marine ground in Kochi, Special Protection Group personnel are supervising the erection of an 8-feet long, 12-feet wide stage -- this is from where Sonia Gandhi would address the Kerala electorate on Friday.

Earlier, a bigger stage (40-feet long and 13-feet wide) had been erected by the organisers, but had to be demolished after the SPG found it unsafe from the security point of view. The site of the stage, too, has now been changed -- to near the main entrance of the ground -- on their advice.

The smaller stage means that only senior leaders like K Karunakaran, A K Antony and Vayalar Ravi will find place on the dais with Rajiv Gandhi's widow. The organisers were earlier planning to accommodate leaders of Congress partners in the United Democratic Front on the dais.

Security considerations have advanced the meeting schedule by an hour. Thus, Sonia will address the public at 1700 hours so as to finish the function before dusk. She is scheduled to arrive on a special aircraft from Hyderabad in the afternoon, and will leave for Goa on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Congressmen are working overtime to assemble an impressive crowd for Sonia. (The Marine ground can accommodate 150,000 people.) Activists from nearby districts are being mobilised to make up for the weak Sriperumbudur effort.

"The ground will be full," says Karunakaran, who is supervising the arrangements.

Elaborate security measures are on, and a 45-feet radius area around the stage has been declared sterile and barricaded. The crowd will have to pass through metal detectors.

"We hope Sonia's visit will make a big difference for the party in Kerala where a sizeable population is Christian," said a senior Congress leader.

In Kochi, the Church had for the first time given its followers an opportunity to exercise their franchise in 1996 (it used to usually direct them to take a pro-Congress stand). The result was that the Congress lost the election, and the subsequent by-election as well.

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