Chandigarh: With the Election Commission's model code of conduct playing spoilsport, there was nothing official about Prime Minister I.K. Gujral's pre-poll exploratory visit to Punjab.Nevertheless, the "son of the soil" did manage a fair amount of publicity. And in the end, it turned out to be a grand PR exercise with newspaper editors in Jalandhar - the constituency Gujral is keen on contesting from - and Chandigarh. Apparently, the groundwork for wooing the local media was done by a Gujral confidant. So, while the visit to The Tribune's office in Chandigarh was a "private interaction", in Jalandhar it was breakfast diplomacy with the families of editors of two widely-circulated vernacular newspapers. Clearly, Gujral has done the spadework for what every politician desperately needs during elections - a positive press.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jan 5, 1998--- ENDS ---
