CHANGE OF GUARD:Balakrishnan (left) and Chennithala

Unlike in the corporate world, mergers in politics don't always favour the predator. The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) merged with the Congress in August. A month later, Tamil Nadu pcc President E.V.K.S. Elangovan has been made working president and S. Balakrishnan of the now-defunct TMC has taken charge. The coup was authored in Delhi by ex-tmc chief G.K. Vaasan, who is now an AICC general secretary. Like his late father G.K. Moopanar, he has wrested control of the legislature party, the PCC, besides securing a foothold in Delhi.

PCC loyalists are not entirely blameless. Infighting led to a campaign for Elangovan's ouster. The high command was left with little choice but to hand over the state unit to the Vaasan group. The AICC also had to pacify the TMC cadre. Five of the 23 TMC MLAs have secured a separate seating arrangement in the Assembly. Says AICC Secretary Ramesh Chennithala: "The TMC was a bigger party and we have to give them importance. Besides, after the merger everyone is a Congressman." He is optimistic that such royal treatment will tempt the prodigals in West Bengal and Maharashtra. Are Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar listening?

-Lakshmi Iyer

FRONTLINE
Desert Blooms

A thatched-hut recreation centre (above) and Basu poster within

Prolonged deployment in the desert sector has seen army jawans come up with numerous innovations. They have built beautiful thatched huts for their mess, recreation and barracks. To preserve their vegetables in the scorching heat, they have fashioned cold storages-they drench the dry-grass roofs of bunkers and evaporation brings down the temperatures by about 7 degrees Celsius. Makeshift golf courses help them while away time as does a desert version of beach volleyball. Posters of actors Bipasha Basu and Aishwarya Rai make up for the absence of bikini-clad beauties.

For many jawans home is too far to reach on a short leave, but they can opt for five-day breaks at the recreation centres with plenty of drinks, dance and fun. Music groups from Mumbai are brought in to entertain them, but local folk dancers are popular too. Jawans mingle freely with the villagers: some distribute toffees to children, others help out with medicines. But at the end of the day, the home away from home does not make up for the real thing.

-Rohit Parihar

Mistry Again

A place on the Booker shortlist is nothing new for Rohinton Mistry. He has been there before with his two previous novels, Such A Long Journey and A Fine Balance. He is there again with his new novel, Family Matters, which too visits the familiar Mistry land of ordinary lives and extraordinary situations.

Among his five competitors is Yann Martel, a Canadian whose Life of Pi too has an Indian side to the story. If he is third time lucky. Mistry will be there to receive £50,000 (Rs 36 lakh) and sales-boosting stardom at the Booker dinner in the Great Court of the British Museum on October 22.

SIGNPOSTS

APPOINTED: Andhra Pradesh BJP leader V. Rama Rao, as Sikkim governor. His predecessor Kidar Nath Sahani is now Goa governor, while former Goa governor Mohammad Fazal has been appointed governor of Maharashtra for the rest of his term.

SENTENCED: By a Dhaka court, ULFA General Secretary Anup Chetia and two associates, to seven years in jail, for possession of a satellite phone.

ELECTED: Industrialist Rahul Bajaj, co-chairman of the Commonwealth Business Council, London.

DIED: A.L. Dias, 92, former West Bengal governor, in Delhi. Dias played a role in the liberation of Goa in 1961.

DIED: P.R. Pisharoty, 93, meteorologist and pioneer of remote sensing in India.