It is a state-of-art bus that Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani will be using during his cross-country Bharat Uday Yatra from Kanyakumari on March 10 to kick off the Bharatiya Janata Party election campaign.
The air-conditioned Swaraj Mazda bus, which will have capacity for about 12 persons apart from four drivers who would be at the wheel by turn, is equipped with a fax machine, a laptop with internet connection and a telephone to enable Advani to keep in touch with day-to-day developments.
Briefing reporters on various features of the specially designed coach, party general secretary and spokesman Pramod Mahajan said the vehicle has a hydraulic lift to take Advani to roof from where he would address meetings enroute.
BJP leader from Chhattisgarh Dilip Singh Judeo used the bus during his assembly election campaign in the state before he was caught in the 'cash-on-camera' scam.
The vehicle also has facilities for playing DVD, VCD and CD, Mahajan said. The windows in the vehicle are made of a special glass, which will enable people and Advani to see each other. The bus also has a shade on the roof to protect Advani from the heat.
This is the third yatra undertaken by Advani in the past 14 years, with the first being the Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990 in the backdrop of Ramjanmabhoomi movementwhich had led to the fall of the V P Singh Government.
The second was the Swarna Jayanti Yatra in May 1997 to mark the golden jubilee of the country's independence and to carry the message that the party, if elected, would take the country from swaraj (independence) to suraj (good governance).
