Distress calls!
A leader of the Congress has resigned from the party not because of being deprived of a ticket for the ensuing election, but for a different reason. He did so, because the senior leaders were avoiding his calls. When the leader did not find his name in the list of candidates from Vindhya region, he got his rag out, and rang up many senior leaders. The leaders he called up were MPCC president, former leader of opposition, party’s state in-charge and a former chief minister. Although none of them called him back, he continued to wait for a response, and as his wait was on, he decided to quit the party. As soon as these senior leaders came to know about it, they tried to contact the angry leader, but then, it was too late, since he had already made a decision. It has, however, changed the senior leaders’ attitude towards the grudging elements, and, now, they have started taking calls. They think avoiding phone calls may lead to more resignations.
Power of Rs 50cr
A former legislator of the Congress is angry with his party for not getting a ticket. The former legislator alleged that the BJP candidate had spent Rs 50 crore to ensure that, instead of him, another Congress leader got the ticket. The former legislator alleged that the BJP candidate wanted a weak contestant in the ring. Ergo, the BJP leader worked over time to ensure that the opposition should field a weak candidate against him. Denied a ticket, the former legislator may have made allegations against the BJP candidate, but in doing so, he only put his own party in the dock. There are discussions that the BJP leader may have spent the money, but it was the Congress leaders who were distributing the tickets. The needle of doubt is pointed towards the leader who deprived the former party legislator of a ticket on the ground of fix. People in the constituency say the former legislator had been fighting against the BJP in the constituency for a long time, so his pains for not getting a ticket can be easily understood. The politician has been given a ticket after his allegation. Everything is possible in poll time.
Minister’s meetings
The meetings of a central minister contesting the upcoming assembly election have become a talk of his constituency. It has happened, because he waits for just one hundred people in each of his meetings. Afterwards, the minister has begun to hold meetings in the constituency, but the number of people arranging for these gatherings is more than that of the crowd. The people have started poking fun at the minister’s failure to draw enough crowds in his meetings, but the minister has made a plan to get out of this situation. He told his aides to keep fewer chairs than required at his meeting venues. The number of chairs being less may make some people stand in the meeting, but his opponents will think he is pulling crowds. The minister, who otherwise maintains a low profile, does not know how he will win the election in this situation. Ergo, he has started finding other ways – opening his wallet to get at the voters.
Number Nine
It is poll season, and politicians are doing everything to romp home. A few of them are going to temples to get blessings of gods and goddesses, and others are performing tantric rituals. A senior leader of the Congress is doing something different, because he believes in numerology, and his favourite number is nine. So, the party declared its first list of candidates containing 144 names at 9am, and if the number is added in sequence (1+4+4), it comes to nine. The number plate of the vehicle that the leader uses is also 0909. Again, if the numbers are added in sequence (09+09), it amounts to 18. The story goes on. Then (1+8) again produces nine. Scientific or reasonable as it may sound, it entails nothing but superstition. The leader concerned is highly educated and sophisticated. But nothing is unfair in election and war.
Voters’ anger
Politicians have a harrowing time before every election, because they have to give the accounts of their deeds to people, the real God in a temple of democracy. An MLA, who is trying his luck again in this election, had to face people’s wrath in a few hamlets in his constituency for he played the key role in changing the course of a canal. His deed or rather misdeed deprived the residents of those villages of the canal water. There was anger among villagers like embers of a dying fire, and, a few days ago, when the legislator was passing through these villages, the residents gave cold shoulder to the law-maker. The kind of chilliness that the villagers displayed scared the law-maker. Now, he is trying to quell their anger, so that the villagers may not vote with their feet.
Ticket talks
Giving tickets to right candidates in an election is an art that every senior leader of a political party should possess. It requires courage as well as astuteness. A senior Congress leader has played a key role in distributing tickets, especially in Bundelkhand region. Though the politician concerned does not lack boldness. Nor is he in want of enough shrewdness, but the tickets given to a few candidates shocked many grass-roots Congressmen in the region. They wanted to know from the leader concerned whether the candidates have the capacity to win the ensuing election which will go right down to the wire. The grass-roots leaders of the party say that since the senior politician does not want any powerful candidates, as they may pose a challenge to him, he gives tickets to weak candidates. However unfair his choice of candidates may have been, the party pulled off benefits from his experiments in the past. In politics, the end justifies the means, and the MP’s Machiavelli understands this phrase very well.
