Krishna at the Badami ceremony

A 1,001-pair mass marriage ceremony arranged to make it to The Guinness Book of Records is proving to be unforgettable for Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna. Organised on December 8 by the state Urban Development Minister B.B. Chimmanakatti in the temple-town of Badami, the function was graced by five leading Hindu religious figures. A two-lakh-strong crowd witnessed 778 couples tie the knot-way short of the record that was sought to be created.

The bridegrooms were given a white shirt and dhoti each while all the brides-some of them seated on their mothers' laps-got blue cotton Ilkal saris. The only hitch, as the embarrassed organisers discovered later, was the presence of at least five child couples. Chimmanakatti's team apparently undertook a filtering process to select the 1,001 couples, 80 per cent of whom came from villages in Bagalkot district. But somewhere down the line, the stress being on creating a record, the organisers failed to block the child couples from being there.

"Our motive was to help these poor people get married and ensure that they saved money," says Chimmanakatti. But critics have begun targeting Krishna. Says Karnataka BJP President Basavaraj Patil: "The chief minister's presence makes a big difference. He must express regret for being there." Janata Dal(U) Parliamentary Board Chairman B. Somashekar says the matter of Krishna's presence "will send wrong signals to society and encourage child marriages".

For Krishna, this is another case of a colleague causing heartache. Last month, state Tourism Minister Roshan Baig's brother was linked to a multi-crore fake stamp racket. Corporation Minister D.K. Shivakumar has been accused of land-grabbing. And now Chimmanakatti has wrought marital disharmony.

-Stephen David

POLL VAULT
Capital Shock
The Congress springs a surprise on the Akali Dal-BJP combine in Chandigarh

HANDS UP: Newly elected Congress councillors in Chandigarh

Misery rarely comes alone. Just when the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP coalition in Punjab-hamstrung by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's femoral fracture-was desperately looking for a leg-up for the upcoming assembly elections, it was dealt a capital shock, literally. The alliance suffered a drubbing at the hands of the Congress in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections last week. The SAD-BJP's shoddy report card did it in, reducing its tally from 15 to four in the 20-member House.

The rout has sent alarm bells ringing in SAD-BJP quarters, worried about the coming Punjab polls. Attempts to play down the loss have begun. "The Chandigarh debacle will have no impact on Punjab," says Badal. Adds Chandigarh BJP stalwart Satya Pal Jain: "It's a warning signal that would push the party to work harder."

But the Chandigarh victory has buoyed up the Congress' spirits. Charged by the 13 seats it won, the party is now trumpeting its impressive showing as an index of the muted public mood in Punjab. "It's a major morale booster," croons Pawan Bansal, Congress MP from Chandigarh. Meanwhile, the crestfallen SAD-BJP alliance has been left hoping its capital blues will wear off by the time Punjab goes to the polls in February.

-Ramesh Vinayak

Khurana

Rallying Apart

The mighty troika in Delhi's BJP-Madan Lal Khurana, V.K. Malhotra and Sahib Singh Verma-has split. Verma and Malhotra boycotted a rally convened by Khurana on December 9. Verma, a co-convener of the rally, pulled out on senior party leaders' instructions. An upset Khurana sent in his resignation from the BJP's national executive and vice-presidency. He is still an MP though. He knows what not to give up.

-Sharad Gupta