Brawny Yadavs
The Yadav community associated with the ruling party is pulling the strings these days. A minister, whom the government and the party organisation were angry with, has again become influential. The higher-ups in the government and the party organisation were against giving a ticket to the minister. However unwilling the party and the government were to field the minister in the ensuing election, the arrival of a leader from the Centre has changed the latter’s fortune. Now, denying him a ticket has become impossible, since the minister is close to the central leader. An MLA from the state capital is also swooned with delight since the leader from Delhi is not ready to listen to anything against this legislator. Similarly, the importance of an MP, who was in the loop line for a long time, has grown. Because the central leader is showering his blessings on these legislators and the MP, they are hopeful of getting tickets.
Pain in the neck
The BJP’s strategy to earn some bonus points against the rivals by fielding many CM-in-waiting candidates from various constituencies seems to have backfired. The supporters of each such candidate are chanting slogans that their leader should become the chief minister. In an era of social media, this information has begun to spread as fast as a wildfire. As a result, competition among the supporters wishing to see their favourite leader as chief minister has intensified. The situation has come to such a pass that the supporters of one leader are behaving like a tight bracelet that only chafes one’s own wrist. The supporters of one warhorse want the other veterans to lose the polls, so that their leader may become the chief minister. Besides the supporters, the aspirants for the CM’s post have begun to lobby for their cause, and, in the process, they are harming each other. The cohorts of a powerful leader have launched a campaign to defeat the leader of their rival camp.
No guarantees
Scores of BJP leaders and workers have made a flight to the Congress. The opposition camp claims they have unconditionally courted the party, though it has neither promised a ticket nor a position to the party-hoppers. Nevertheless, a little birdie that is often seen perched on the roof of the PCC office, tells us that a former Lok Sabha member from the Bundelkhand region is driving a hard bargain for switching loyalties. He is in touch with the top leadership of the state Congress and wants an assurance that he should be fielded from a particular constituency in the assembly election. On the other hand, the Congress is barely ready to oblige him. The veteran politician is weighing his options. Awful experience Having a chopper ride is a dream for many. So, when an office-holder of the BJP organisation got a chance for a chopper ride, he was overjoyed. He had to attend a function of the party in Jabalpur. Swooned, as he was for having a chance to ride a chopper for the first time, he failed to fathom what was awaiting him. When he returned to the state capital, he did not even want to remember what he had to undergo. The whirring helicopter rotors made him almost deaf, and he did not want to have another chopper ride again. However insalubrious his experience may have been, he was amazed at the energy of the Chief Minister who often goes from one place to another by a chopper.
Poll-time gift
One of the members of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan cabinet distributed a set of five utensils and a helmet to all the families in his constituency in the Bundelkhand region of the state. Mantriji was hopeful that the voters would remember the gift, when they cast their vote. Whether that happens or not is anybody’s guess. But the grapevine has it that when one of the beneficiaries of the minister’s benevolence asked another who he would vote for, the reply was cryptic. “Yes, I have got five utensils, but how to treat the daughter-in-law will be decided by us,” he said. Clearly, not everyone is ready to press the lotus button in return for the gift. For the uninitiated, there is a tradition of presenting a set of five utensils to the bride in marriages in the Bundelhand region. And there is more trouble in the offing for the minister. Those who have been given helmets are now hoping that the minister would give them a bike, too!
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