Changed Voice
An influential leader of the ruling party, also a minister, seems to have completely given in to the government. He has found the middle way to remain relevant in politics. The minister longs to fly with the Bade Sahib and makes efforts to fulfil this itch. A recent incident has come upon many people. The Chief Minister went to the minister’s home district to take part in a function. From there, he had to go to another place. As there was not enough room in his car, the Chief Minister advised his colleague to use another vehicle to make his ride comfortable, but he did not listen, and sat in the Chief Minister’s jam-packed car.
The minister’s conduct amazed many of his friends. This happened when the minister was not getting any weight in the government that cast off many of his proposals. He is held in high esteem in politics for his openness, but the circumstances have compelled him to give up defiance.
Sharing Laughs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cackles – after he cracked some jokes with a former minister on a stage from where he was to address a public meeting – have yanked many politicians in the state. Modi does not generally speak much to anyone on the stage before addressing a crowd. On the contrary, he not only spoke to the former minister but also guffawed after sharing some jokes with him.
Now, people in the corridors of power are trying to unveil the mystery behind these chortles. Several changes are expected in the state cabinet after the Lok Sabha election. When the ruling party leaders formed a government after the assembly election, they laid emphasis on caste equations, keeping in mind the Lok Sabha polls. They may make some changes in the cabinet after the parliamentary election. A few ministers may be deprived of their departments, and some new faces inducted into the cabinet.
Whatever the politicians may say, this laughter signifies central leadership’s happiness with the former minister. Ergo, his being inducted into the cabinet and becoming powerful again cannot be ruled out.
Out of State
There are natters in the corridors power about the disappearance of a former chief minister of the Congress from the political scene after the polling in his parliamentary constituency. It also came to light that he had gone to a constituency of a candidate, close to him, for campaigning, and that, too, for two days. He left the state afterwards.
There are reports that the former chief minister decided to go abroad immediately after the polling in his constituency. Because he delayed his trip for two days, he addressed a few public meetings. Now, only a few close aides of the former chief minister know about his location. When some Congress leaders requested him to campaign for a few candidates, he reportedly said he had his schedules already fixed. T
he former chief minister neither interacts with the central leadership nor is he seen anywhere. So, it is believed he is doing politics in his own way.
Astrologer’s Day
In a short story, An Astrologer’s Day, RK Narayan’s portrayal of a soothsayer – people were attracted to him as bees are attracted to cosmos or dahlia stalks – is still pertinent. Yet it becomes more relevant in the run-up to an election than it is in a normal situation.
This is the time when the fortune tellers take the arms of the Indian politicians to their palms. As the Lok Sabha election is going on and the canvassing for it has reached a feverish pitch, the foretellers are as busy as the contestants are. As a result, the real soothsayers have become so rare a clan that two rival candidates have to turn to one. Because the candidates belong to two different parties, the diviner has to give different suggestions to both of them on the basis of their horoscopes. So are the timings of their visit to the astrologer’s chamber.
Apart from that, the foreteller has a problem, and that he cannot reveal the tidings about one candidate to another. A stroke of wit has, however, entailed a solution: he never discloses it to one candidate that the other consults him. Both of them owe their origin to royal families. Once they had been in the same political outfit, but their relationship was always tangy. Now, because of the Lok Sabha election, it has hit a new low.
Anxiety Writ Large
The political parties are in a flat spin because of the low turnout of voters in the first phase and in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election. Yet more bothered seem to be the candidates than the political parties on whose tickets they are contesting, because their future is at stake. The Sidhi Lok Sabha constituency, which went to polls in the first phase, registered the lowest of voting percentage in the state.
It has flustered a candidate so much that he wanted to know from his supporters whether he had any chance to win this election. Those loyal to the candidate have begun to collect feedback from voters about the prospects of their leader’s win. As the candidate has already lost the assembly election from one of the seats in this Lok Sabha constituency, his anxiety is palpable.
Veil of Confusion Lifts
A tribal candidate of a national party had to file nomination from a Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh just on the last day of filing papers. It happened, because the top leaders of the party were dithering over whether they should field that particular candidate or not. As the delay in announcing the name of this candidate compounded confusion, the opposition rumour mill went into overdrive suggesting that the candidate was not keen on fighting the election.
On the contrary, the candidate was at sea, for, he had no way to dispel the doubts created by the rumour mongers about his contesting the election. The party leadership, too, was searching for a solution, because they had to select one candidate out of four. Because of this dilemma, the candidate could not even open an office in the constituency to drum up support for himself. On the last day of filing nomination, however, the winds blew away the clouds. He got the party leadership’s nod to contest the election, and filed papers accordingly.
