India Today Poll 98 [The Nation: Poll Pourri]

Elections in Bihar are about caste wars. Now comes a corporate war, at least in Jamshedpur. Russi Mody, former chairman of TISCO, has approached the BJP, spoken to Sitaram Kesri and, just in case everybody says no, declared intent to contest independently and win "support of all sections". TISCO's management is certainly not among these. It is projecting Ajoy Kumar, Jamshedpur's former daredevil SP who left the IPS to join the Tata group, as its nominee -- and possibly the BJP's as well, given he's already met K.N. Govindacharya and Pramod Mahajan. There are some problems though. One, nobody's asked Nitish Bhardwaj, the BJP's outgoing MP, not to re-contest. Two, Jamshedpur is not exactly TISCO's little pocket borough. There is a large tribal backyard that hasn't heard of industry. Yet, Mody is gung ho as ever: "I'm just middle-aged. Only 80." Well, he's known to like omelettes; how about egg on the face?

BALLOT BOX

Amma Dekh: A tableau at the AIADMK's conference in Tirunelveli seems to represent the mythology according to Jayalalitha and confers a dubious status on Karunanidhi and the rest of the DMK pantheon.

The Congress' search for untainted faces whom voters will like is truly pathetic. Last heard, P.A. Sangma, who's rarely addressed a rally outside his native Meghalaya, was much in demand -- among partymen in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, West Bengal. Perhaps his fervent pleas for silence as the hapless Speaker of the 11th Lok Sabha have won him sympathy among the people, even if they evoked no response in the House. The other great white hope is Manmohan Singh, seen as a prospective candidate from south Delhi, liberalisation's Disneyland. His backers hope he'll win back the Sikhs and induce the generally non-voting affluent classes to walk to the polling booth. Wonder what his slogan'll be -- "Amiri lao"?

Every politician has a weakness. Laloo Prasad Yadav has two: Sadhu and Subhash, his brothers-in-law. Both want to contest from Gopalganj. Sadhu is determined, "ticket or no ticket". Since he says he's "nursed the constituency for 23 long years" hopefully Rabri didi will smile at him. Maybe that's why brother Subhash is pinning hopes on Laloo: "Saheb is everything for us. It is for saheb to judge who will be the candidate." Even so, the fatalism hasn't kept him from canvassing with senior ministers like Raghunath Jha. With Sadhu, when words fail -- which seems quite often -- fists take over. Recently, along with Munajir Hasan, RJD MLA and Sadhu flunkey, he beat up some of Subhash's supporters. Apparently the duo was drunk. As the fraternal feud hots up, Lal Babu Prasad Yadav, the outgoing RJD MP from Gopalganj, has not uttered one word about being renominated. Discretion, in English and Yadav-speak alike, is the better part of valour.

Lame duck, lame excuse. Prime Minister I.K. Gujral was to visit Faridkot on January 12. To bypass the the code of conduct, he'd made it an official visit: to inspect waterlogging. Coincidentally, Sukhbir, son of Parkash Singh Badal, is seeking re-election from Faridkot and Gujral is very keen to help, party stand be damned. Luckily, the EC stepped in and forced him to cancel his trip. Earlier, it had stopped him from inaugurating an irrigation project in Sis Ram Ola's constituency in Jhunjhunu. Tut, tut. When will this man learn?

Andhra Pradesh's tradition of one-man, one-issue parties goes back to N.T. Rama Rao, who founded the Telugu Desam with only one issue: himself. This time there is a plethora of such groups. M.V. Bhaskara Rao, the state's former police chief, has founded the Andhra Nadu, aiming, most originally, to "empower deprived sections". Next there is Jai Telengana, which wants a separate state. The Kapu community has been organised into the Kapu Nadu. The Madigas and Malas, the largest Dalit sub-castes, have formed the Madiga Dandora and the Mala Mahanadu. The Dandora plans the chappal (slipper) as its symbol, "to teach Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu a lesson". What was that about politics being slippery?

Laloo Yadav's southern partners in the Jan Morcha are a fairly obscure lot, with one honourable exception: the Janadhipatya Samrakshana Samiti (JSS) in Kerala. This is the party K.R. Gowri founded after she was thrown out of the CPI(M) three years ago. An Ezhava, the OBC Gowriamma's explusion had the CPI(M) top brass facing charges of casteism. As a firebrand minister in the Marxist government of 1967, Gowri mothered Kerala's extensive land reforms. At 79, she remained formidable enough for Kanshi Ram to want to woo the JSS into his alliance. So is she the new role model for Mayawati?

Here's a formula for winning the Bharat Ratna posthumously: make sure your political heirs have a legacy to exploit or a national party to coerce. Srikant Jena of the JD set the ball rolling when he accused A.B. Vajpayee of sabotaging Biju Patnaik's Bharat Ratna. Apparently, Vajpayee's contention -- though he's denied it -- was that if Biju deserved the highest civilian honour so did N.T. Rama Rao (NTR). Since Bjiu's son and NTR's widow are now cosying up to the BJP, it may want to make the Bharat Ratna a poll commitment. Next, some party could promise Rajasthan's voters a Param Vir Chakra for Rana Pratap

King of the hills, emperor of the sound bite. Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh's chief minister, obviously thinks he's sitting pretty. He must be the only remaining Congressman to ooze confidence, despite the Lok Sabha and assembly elections coming up. He's dismissive of the BJP: "Its so-called lehar (wave) is like Pepsi Lehar -- only fizz." Nor does he want any central leaders to help him: "They are welcome for winter holidaying. I can take care of campaigning." Maybe the national cricket team should meet Singh for a few sessions on the killer instinct.

Some Gujaratis love the BJP, most Gujaratis love flying kites and all Gujaratis love making money. Bharat Shah, an Ahmedabad businessman, has decided to combine all three passions. He recently set up shop near the BJP's state headquarters with 40,000 custom-designed white kites proclaiming: "Sthir sarkar, Atal netritva" -- Stable government, Atal (resolute) leadership.

With a little help from his friends in the party, Shah's been selling 200 kites a day and has told his suppliers to send him 60,000 more. He is also expanding his range of user-friendly BJP merchandise to include "friendship belts" -- with the lotus (the BJP's symbol) and the slogan "I love BJP" printed on them. Savvy as he may be, to Shah business takes second place to loyalty: "I churn out innovative ideas only for the BJP. I don't sell my ideas to any other party." What do you call this? Ideological profitability or profitable ideology?

TALKING POINT
Who wants which symbol and why

Lantern: Laloo's RJD wants to "light up every home" and make Rabri Bihar's lady with the lamp. Meanwhile, the price of lanterns in Patna has doubled to Rs 200.

Telephone: Having spread the telephone message in Himachal Pradesh and the telephony message nationwide, Sukh Ram wants to connect with the voters now. Maybe he thinks every STD booth he had set up will be his local campaign office.

Trumpet: The very apt symbol for Vaghela's RJP in Gujarat. Vaghela could also have considered other instruments, given that he played the Pied Piper when he lured dissident BJPs to Khajuraho and, later, to a new party.

Grass tufts: Mamata Banerjee's "back to basics" symbol for the Trinamool (Grassroots) Congress. Apparently, Mani Shankar Aiyar is still trying to explain it in cerebral terms.

Eye: Hegde wanted it for his Lok Shakti. The EC was blind to his entreaties.Try the electric razor.

January 19, 1998