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Article: All Over But the Voting? : Vajpayee rides a post-Kashmir wave toward victory.(Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Newsweek International
- Article date:
- August 30, 1999
- Author:
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This is not the election the Congress party had in mind. Back in April, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Bharatiya Janata Party looked vulnerable. Both were under attack from their unruly allies. The Congress party maneuvered the fall of the BJP-led government, and drafted the party's marquee candidate, Sonia Gandhi, to lead it confidently into electoral battle. Then a real war intervened. In May, Muslim insurgents crossed over from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir high in the Himalayas. The nation rallied behind the interim government, the Indian Army drove the attackers out--and Vajpayee's approval ratings took off. Many polls predict that when the monthlong ...