Sonia Gandhi at a rally in Dimapur, Nagaland, on Saturday. (Eastern Projections)

March 1: Sonia Gandhi took the budget to the people today, describing it as “historic” at well-attended rallies in Nagaland that votes on Wednesday.

“I thank Prime Minister Manmohan Singhji for this,” she said.

In Delhi, her party was preparing for a rally at the Ramlila grounds on March 9 that will be the first of a countrywide campaign to publicise the budget.

“Budget 2008 laaya khushiyon ki saugaat, aam aadmi ka badha hai Congress mein vishwas (Budget 2008 has brought us glad tidings, and raised the common man’s trust in the Congress),” posters plastered outside Sonia’s house read as the party rushed to claim credit for the “aam aadmi” budget.

Fears that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar might hog the credit for the “pro-farmer” announcements like the Left did with the rural jobs scheme have prompted the party to act fast. Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party today brought out ads proclaiming that their “saheb” had “fulfilled his promises”.

After Delhi, public meetings will be held in state capitals and district headquarters.

Rahul Gandhi, who starts his Bharat yatra from Orissa next week, is also expected to take the budget to the people.

Sonia described the Rs 60,000-crore farm-loan waiver as a bold decision and said the budget catered to all segments of society, particularly women. The Congress president highlighted the raise for anganwadi workers.

In the competitive politics within the UPA, the Congress does not want to be turfed out by Pawar and Lalu Prasad, who went to town with his railway budget, like it was by the CPM and its Left allies who incessantly claimed credit for pushing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the National Rural Health Mission.

Digvijay Singh, who is organising the Delhi show, has directed regional leaders to bring in crowds from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

But while the posters announced that the railway and general budgets had “strengthened” the Congress president’s “hand”, the party privately worried if they would fetch it votes. Another worry was how the nuclear deal would play out.

“V.P. Singh (as Prime Minister) had waived farmers’ loans and implemented OBC reservation only to lose the next election. All that the budget has given us is a talking point we sorely needed after our electoral reverses,” a source said.

A down-to-earth assessment was that elections held after June — when the targeted farmers will officially be debt free — would give the party a sense of its strength on the ground and the impact of the farm loan waiver and the rural jobs scheme.

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Mizoram and possibly Karnataka are likely to vote in November.

“The monsoon may be good or bad. If bad, it’s worse for the incumbent governments and good for us in the states where we are in Opposition,” a source said.

The Congress’s reading of the nuclear deal calendar was it might “stretch out” until September or October. That’s when the leaders are expected to take a call on when to go for the general election.

“A lot” would depend on how Sonia and the Prime Minister weighed the nuclear deal and the aam admi agenda on the party’s balance sheet, the sources said. Other factors were the allies and whether the Congress wanted to risk a “long-term breach” with the Left. Sonia is not keen on this but Rahul, being groomed as the party’s future leader, does not want to dump the deal.