Instead of asking questions or demanding answers about what the government wants to do if it is re-elected, we are stuck on the question of when the election itself will be held.
If it is re-elected next year, AK will make an overdue start on rewriting the constitution drawn up after the 1980 military coup.Yet this is also where the doubts start to creep in.
And the BJP-JD(U) alliance, which encompasses the southern state of Karnataka as well, could be the central partnership of the ruling coalition if it is re-elected.
It says that if it is re-elected on May 1st it will put the tube into private hands.Like many of the Tories' previous privatisations, this would be something of a novelty.
Labor has said it will oppose most of the government's company tax cut plan, which will reduce all business tax rates to 25% by 2026, as soon as possible if it is re-elected.
The government confirmed it will legislate the entire decade-long plan for staged company tax cuts, that would reduce all business tax rates to 25% by 2026, as soon as possible if it is re-elected.
The laws are deeply unpopular, and explain at least some of Mr Howard's consistent deficit in opinion polls this year.And the ruling has given the opposition Labor Party and Kevin Rudd, its leader, fuel for a fear campaign: the government, it says, must be planning more draconian changes if it is re-elected, and is trying to cover them up.
It demonstrates that the Tories have rediscovered the will and energy to fight a ruthlessly effective campaign, but that they are not yet thinking or behaving like a government-in-waiting.The ties that bindBy contrast, the Labour Party's manifesto a 112-page book is more than just a detailed account of what Labour will do when (the assumption is implicit) it is re-elected.
The gravamen of the charge against this government is that, for all the triumphalism about a long-delayed period of economic growth, it woefully mishandled the economy when it came in – and plans an assault on our already deteriorating public services, if it is re-elected, that would quite seriously threaten the social fabric of the nation.
If you believe that God has a higher purpose for your work, then you bring a special fervour to everything that you do, whether it is re-electing the president, challenging his opponent's credentials, stopping his voters from voting, challenging their votes or - if by some cruel fate the opponent wins the election - preventing him from governing.
The Labour Party says it will guarantee a job for the long-term unemployed, if it is re-elected.
