Singh campaigns in Kochi. (PTI)

New Delhi, April 11: He may not campaign across the country but Manmohan Singh will be the Congress’s “voice” along with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi this election, occasionally needling Opposition bigwigs with cultured barbs as he did with L.K. Advani yesterday.

In a carefully designed strategy, the Prime Minister has been given the task of “talking” and taking on the likes of Advani, Narendra Modi and Prakash Karat, party sources said. In addition, Singh, who had bypass surgery in January, will address an average of one public meeting a day.

At the Congress war room, 15 Gurdwara Rakabgunj Road, the Prime Minister’s interaction with women journalists yesterday was marked “10 out of 10”.

Singh, attacked as a “weak PM” by Advani for the umpteenth time, had said he might not be a good speaker but was better than the BJP leader at taking decisions and suggested that those who inherit their parents’ culture do not use “abusive” language. All the 17 senior leaders in the war room savoured Singh’s polished rapier play, describing him as the clear winner over the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister.

A general secretary explained the Prime Minister’s new role of taking the battle to the enemy camp: “As he has himself confessed, he may not be the best public speaker; but when he speaks, the words come straight from his heart and he sounds convincing to the silent majority.”

Sources said Singh would interact with the media more regularly, aided by inputs from the war room before every meeting.

In keeping with the new strategy, Singh addressed a rally in Left bastion Kerala today, accusing the communists of repeatedly being on the “wrong side” of history and helping the BJP by dividing secular votes.

His new role has added to the Prime Minister’s busy schedule. Last evening, minutes after ending his long session with 100 women journalists at his home, he spent an hour with 40 Urdu editors and columnists at a hotel.

He was asked about the follow-up action on the reports by the Sachar Committee and the Justice Jagannath Mishra Commission on minorities’ plight, the proposed anti-riot bill and the detention of young Muslims on terror-related charges.

Singh agreed to the idea of a monitoring mechanism for the Sachar report follow-up, and said the anti-riot bill was stalled because some NGOs working among the minorities had expressed reservations. He agreed on the need to have a sub-plan for Muslims’ all-round development and to implement the Mishra report.

Under the new battle plans, Sonia Gandhi has taken on the role of defending Singh each time the BJP, Left or third front leaders attack him. She hit back at Advani today for the “weak PM” remarks.

Sonia cited how, when Advani was home minister, India witnessed several terrorist attacks and how his cabinet colleague Jaswant Singh accompanied terrorists to Afghanistan to set them free. “Advani should think of all this before blaming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” she told a rally in Jamui, about 200km from Patna.

At Kochi, Singh trained his guns on the communists, citing how they had repeatedly chosen the “wrong” side on political issues, from the Quit India movement to the Green Revolution and then the telecom revolution.

“When our country got freedom, they said it was not true Independence,” Singh said.

“The Left Front or the so-called third front can never by themselves form a government at the Centre. They can only divide the secular votes. Thereby, they can only strengthen the BJP,” he added.

Singh accused Kerala’s LDF government of lack of interest in implementing development projects cleared by the Centre.

“We often ponder why neighbouring districts in nearby states (he mentioned Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Mangalore) have all become hubs for business activity but not Kerala…. This is because of the wrong policies of the Left which are unfriendly for investment.”

Singh had cut a completely different picture during the 2004 elections. In April-May 2004, he had stayed mostly at home, attending just a few party meetings at which he seldom spoke.

Party strategists had organised a few meetings in Delhi where he was to spell out the Congress stand on economic issues. But several of these, including one in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, were called off apparently because of lack of enthusiasm among he participants.

Sources said Singh himself was lukewarm to the idea of explaining Congress principles to a possibly hostile and impatient audience in a BJP-ruled state.