Congress campaign '09: Jai Ho, Aam Aadmi & missing Rahul

Continuing its association with the Aam Aadmi, the Congress's slogan for the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, which was unveiled on Friday, banks heavily on the common man.

'Aam admi ke badte kadam, har kadam par Bharat bulund', is the Congress' theme to woo the common man. 

Interestingly, the new slogan for the Parliamentary election has been penned by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anand Sharma and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.

It received the instant approval of the party leadership including Janardhan Dwivedi, who has been writing most of the party's major slogans as well as Congress president Sonia Gandhi's speeches.

The Percept Advertising Agency has made three 60-second films for the Congress, with a background theme inspired by A R Rahman's Oscar-winning Jai Ho track.

The improvised Jai Ho has been written by Ashok Chakratdhar and has been sung by Balram. Another version of the song, eulogising the Congress's achievements, will be written and sung by Sukhwinder.

To reach out to voters across the country, the Congress will unveil more films as well as jingles and advertising spots, done by advertising agencies J Walter Thomson and Crayons.

The Congress campaign speaks of the party's heritage and achievements and focuses on key Congress leaders and former prime ministers. But the campaign avoids mentioning former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.

However, AICC General Secretary and publicity in-charge Digvijay Singh said that the Congress might project Rahul as a young leader of the future in its forthcoming films.

The current campaign gives equal prominence to party chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, putting at rest speculations that the party would try to shortchange Dr Singh in the future leadership sweepstakes.

Congress leaders informed that the campaign would also attack the Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly the 'double speak' of its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani.

But the Congress wants to primarily focus on publicising its achievements in its five-year rule and stress that only a pan-Indian party like the Congress can rule the country unitedly.

This is a departure from the party's strategy for the 2004 LS poll, when it had hit out against the India Shining campaign of the BJP and its 'pro-rich policies'.