February 9, 1998

Young Red Blood

Manik Sarkar has won only one election. Even so, he could be the man to end the CPI(M)'s gerontocracy syndrome. Sarkar, who heads a ginger group of 40-somethings in the Tripura unit, is being projected as the chief ministerial candidate in the assembly elections. He's ensured that by getting his principal rival, Home Minister Samar Chowdhury, a safe Lok Sabha seat. Dasrath Deb Burman, the ageing and outgoing chief minister, has been dogged by ill-health. In contrast, Sarkar seems a babe in the woods. Maybe they'll call it the Little Red Riding Hood revolution.

-- Udayan Namboodiri

Nothing Doing

Nomination season has left many disgruntled. The list of well-known Congressmen and former Congressmen who've been denied nominations by their parties can constitute a small ministry. Leading the pack is P.V. Narasimha Rao, the victim of a party's ingratitude. In Delhi, the Congress denied tickets to H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler for their implication in the anti-Sikh violence of 1984. Of the one-time Congressmen, Aslam Sher Khan was refused a ticket by the BJP. More unfortunate was Anadi Charan Sahu, outgoing MP from Cuttack, who had to be sacrificed to mollify the ally Biju Janata Dal. Finally, there was Mani Shankar Aiyar, who couldn't decide between being a Congressman and a former Congressman. He asked Mamata Banerjee for Serampore, Calcutta North-West or Howrah; he asked Subhas Ghising for Darjeeling; he asked Sonia Gandhi for help. Not one SOS was heeded. Poor chap.

--S S Ranjit

Rallies and the Realities

Who's that man? The man she's whispering to? The crowd was curious. He waved when Priyanka asked him to. He'd been introduced in the speeches preceding Sonia Gandhi's at Chandigarh but the name didn't ring a bell for the people present. To Bhajan Lal, he was "Vadra saheb", to others "Robert bhai". To Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, it was an honour that Sonia had come with the family. Initially shy, Robert Vadra, Priyanka's husband, soon began waving to the crowd like a veteran politician. He sat on the dais as even Amrinder Singh, former royal and Lok Sabha candidate from Patiala, was forced to stand. Why was Robert there? Apparently to dispel notions that he's opposed to Priyanka's entry into politics.

-- Harinder Baweja

Sonia's rally at Nandurbar, Maharashtra, impressed many. Evidently, Manikrao Gavit, the Congressman who is contesting his sixth election there, wasn't among them. While the crowd was some three lakh-strong, Gavit couldn't help saying, "We used to have more people." He was referring to Indira Gandhi's rally in 1980 and Rajiv's in 1989. While Sonia spoke of stability, Gavit remarked, "Stability is for Delhi drawing rooms. My voters are more worried about their cotton crop and being ousted by the Narmada project." Nevertheless, local Congressmen were happy enough to present Sonia a 40 tola silver necklace made by Bhil craftsmen. She also got two Bhil saris -- the other one being for Priyanka.

-- Smruti Kopikkar

Battle Royal

When Vijayaraje Scindia, Gwalior's former rajmata, announced she would be contesting from Guna yet again, it raised some eyebrows. Vijayaraje had declared the 1996 polls to be her last and had promised to nominate her youngest daughter, Yashodhara, 43, the next time. S.C. Angre, Vijayaraje's longtime confidant, made her change her mind. Pro-Yashodhara party workers protested at a conference in Shivpuri, Guna. The lady herself is quite upset: "Like all mothers, my mother still considers me young. I told her I'll be hitting 50 in a few years." The real obstacle is Angre, who doesn't want his influence on Vijayaraje disturbed.

--N K Singh

Last Laugh on the Wall

M.K. Stalin, M. Karunanidhi's son and Chennai's mayor, seems serious about implementing the EC's directive not to use the walls of government buildings for canvassing. A start was made with the Royapettah Government Hospital, from whose walls DMK workers had meticulously removed film posters. Instead, they had painted the rising sun -- the DMK's symbol -- extolled the virtues of Karunanidhi's Government and drawn cartoons ridiculing the BJP-AIADMK alliance. Since the walls fall within Stalin's Thousand Lights constituency (he's also an MLA), the mayor, keen to show the EC what a good boy he was, asked partymen to whitewash them. They did as told but left one painting of a grinning Karunanidhi where it was. The reason: "The EC is against using government buildings' walls for poll campaigns. Not against the chief minister's portrait decorating government building walls." Clever.

-- L R Jagadheesan

They also Serve

Elections have place for everything, even old-fashioned values of giving back to society some of what you've received from it. Election Watch (EW), comprising leading Hyderabadis, is conducting a voter education programme, monitoring party lists for candidates with a criminal background, suggesting safeguards against bogus voting and organising public debates between rival candidates. Two former civil servants, B.P.R. Vithal and N. Jayaprakash Narayan are the guiding spirits of EW. More power to their collective elbow.

-- Amarnath K Menon

New View

Everybody in Haryana is sporting coloured glasses these days. No, it's not conjunctivitis, it's only election-it is. Devi Lal's Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) has decided to make a spectacle of its poll symbol -- a pair of spectacles. So 1 lakh plastic dark glasses have been bought from toy manufacturers in Delhi and are embellishing faces across the state. Devi Lal must be hoping at least some of the 2 lakh eyes so covered belong to his party's voters. Meanwhile, Haryanvis are praying that his next symbol is a motor car.

-- Ramesh Vinayak

Number Story

MDMK leader and Jayalalitha friend V. Gopalasamy recently changed his name to Vaiko. Simultaneously, many senior partymen were denied tickets and migrated to the DMK. Of the nine district secretaries who deserted the DMK when that party expelled Gopalasamy in 1993, only five now remain with him. Apparently, this is all due to numerology. In 1993, nine was seen as Jayalalitha's lucky number, currently it's five. That explains the number of district secretaries necessary at various times; and Gopalasamy's five-lettered new name.

-- L R Jagadheesan

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