DIARY
Poll Diary 99News , Gossip, Jokes etc
VOTE FOR THE NET
Visit Munde at sycophancy.com
Have you visited www.gopinathmunde.com? The
Maharashtra deputy cm's brand new and very own website is a part of his campaign to
project himself as a "samarth neta" (capable leader) and maybe, just maybe make
it to the top job. To some degree, it's an exercise in cyber-sycophancy: the happiest day
in Munde's life is "the day Atalji was sworn in as pm"; the biggest influences
on his life are "Atalji and Lal Krishnaji". Visitor response has been good, with
e-mails ranging from gushing praise to complaints about Mumbai's traffic jams.
-V.
Shankar Aiyar
Brothers (up) in arms, Silchar: Former Union minister Santosh Mohan Deb
has sibling Sarit battling him in a Congress-NCP clash for this family borough. So P.A.
Sangma who addressed rallies in praise of the big brother only a few months ago will now
campaign for the rebellious kid brother. At the root of strife is not piffling ideology
but something far more important to any good politician: property. Apparently, the CPIM)
is hand-in-glove with Santosh and has replaced Nurul Hooda, who polled 29 per cent of the
vote in 1998, with a weakling.
-Sumit
Mitra
Feud in the family, Delhi:
On August 16, the NDA manifesto was released by the PM at Pramod Mahajan's residence.
Simultaneously, the silent but sedulous game between Mahajan's boys and the regulars at
the BJP's Ashoka Road HQ moved to another stage. K.N. Govindacharya, Narendra Modi, M.
Venkaiah Naidu, Jana Krishnamurthy: not one of these HQ honchos was present. Only J.P.
Mathur landed up. Apparently, the others were upset at a Mahajan flunkey calling the party
office for a list of those who would be attending.
-Saba
Naqvi Bhaumik
Trivial Pursuit
Suresh Agarwal of Uttar Pradesh stood on one leg outside
Jitendra Prasada's house in Delhi demanding a Congress ticket.
When Jayalalitha campaigned for Mani Shankar Aiyar in
Mayiladuthurai she didn't use his name. She only pointed in his direction and said,
"Please vote for him."
Six crore voters will use one lakh voting machines at
65,000 booths in 46 seats.
For the first time NCC cadets are going to be deployed on
election duty. The EC has called in 11 lakh of them.
BEATING A RETREAT
Madhya Pradesh politicos are on the run
In Madhya Pradesh, senior politicians are running away from the Lok Sabha contest.
In the ruling Congress, ministers lobbied in Delhi to not get tickets. Assembly Speaker
Shrinivas Tiwari was reluctant too. The trappings of office in Bhopal were deemed
preferable to uncertain days in Delhi. The sad story of Charan Das Mahant -- once home
minister in the state but "forced to carry his own briefcase" as an mp in 1998
-- haunted everybody. Veteran Arjun Singh shied away citing "party work".
Madhavrao Scindia fled edgy Gwalior for old haunt Guna, which his mother Vijayaraje
represented before she fell ill. S.C. Verma (BJP) hung his boots too and was replaced in
Bhopal by Uma Bharati, who quit Khajuraho. Another BJP drop-out is Sartaj Singh, who
trounced Arjun a year ago.
-N.K. Singh
REPUBLIC OF BIHAR
Bogus boxes, fraud franchise
District election officers (DEOs) from seven of Bihar's constituencies have
confirmed discovering bogus ballot boxes among those used in the previous election. Siwan
(510) and Samastipur (440) accounted for most. Twenty boxes found in Siwan are in the eye
of the storm. D.C. Yadav (JD), who lost the Saharsa seat to A.L. Yadav (RJD) in 1998, says
some of these boxes were used to help Laloo Yadav defeat Sharad Yadav in neighbouring
Madhepura. Parts of Madhepura come within the Saharsa DEO's purview. Laloo had claimed
"djinns" in ballot boxes helped him win. Now people are talking of a phantom
menace.
-Sanjay Kumar
Jha
FEUD OF THE WEEK
Shourie vs Quattrocchi
Mr Q, he of Bofors infamy, became a political issue in absentia after Sonia Gandhi
side-stepped a question about him at her press conference: "We have never seen the
papers naming him in the deal. They should show the papers." Shourie, a Bofors
specialist and now BJP MP, responded with a copious documentation of 26 rulings and
findings of Swiss and Indian courts and agencies. "All she has to do is read the
judgements," he exclaimed. Later Ram Jethmalani joined this fresh round in the
never-ending Bofors bout. Over to Mrs G -- and Mr Q. he said She said
POLL STATS
Amount spent on the voter I-card scheme so far, in
Rs crore 440
Total hours on DD allotted to parties
126
Paper to be used for polls, in met. tonnes
8,000
Number of parties registered with EC
632
Estimated cost of poll '99, in Rs crore
6,000
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES
T.N. Seshan, ex-CEC and Shiv Sena nominee for
president gets Congress ticket for Gandhinagar
Activist bureaucrat. Favourite of the Rotary Club-after dinner speech circuit.
Self-importance personified. Seshan, old timers may remember, was a Rajiv Gandhi
favourite, his security secretary and candidate for the Election Commission.
"I have joined the best party in the arena ... led by India's most
political family."
Shakshi Maharaj has been denied a BJP ticket and is
moving towards the SP
A powerful sanyasi. Close to Kalyan Singh. Shakshi is also under a cloud
over the murder of B.D. Dwivedi, a top BJP leader in Farrukhabad.
"I am very upset. The BJP has shown itself to be anti-OBC. There is a
conspiracy."
CRYSTAL BALL
A.B. Vajpayee will become the next prime minister with
allies' help.
The government will last 2 years.
The next general election will take place around 2001.
Sonia Gandhi will never become the prime minister of India.
Arati Chakrabortty, kabbala specialist
The kabbala is an ancient Jewish form of divination and one of the most original
forms of astrology ever practised. It has a strong numerological and calligraphic base and
Chakrabortty claims to be its doyenne in India.
WHY THE BJP DIDN'T LIKE AD
AGENCIES
Copywriting begins at home, with Sushil Pandit
The BJP's grand plan to hire a professional advertising agency has been abandoned.
After promising early presentations none of the agencies has "met the mark".
Initially Dhar & Hoon roped in advertising ace Tara Sinha to handle the campaign. But
even their work did not satisfy the three member team of Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and
Arun Shourie. Soon after the deal with Dhar & Hoon was called off, there was talk of
bringing in Trikaya Grey. In due course, it was decided that while the agencies were
producing commercially attractive copy, it lacked political content. The job eventually
goes to the tried and trusted Taskforce BJP, with the creative being handled by Sushil
Pandit. Now the Taskforce team has come up with personality-oriented, Vajpayee-specific
slogans that will be splashed across dailies in the coming days: "A leader you can
trust. In war. In peace."
One agency that did do minor work was Equus. It gave inputs
on the look and style of the NDA manifesto. All the pictures of Atalji appear sans BJP
colours. The language is simpler than the usual. But there are typographical bloomers as
well, as old-time party workers gleefully point out.
-Saba Naqvi
Bhaumik
MAPPING IT
Colours of Bihar: The recently-formed RJD-Congress-Left alliance
polled more votes in 1998 than the BJP-Samata in 26 of Bihar's 54 seats (top map). But
with the JD(U) joining in and consolidating the anti-Laloo Yadav forces, the NDA's 1998
vote tally is higher than the RJD-led front's in 41 seats. |
