A fused bulb
The Aam Aadmi PaRty’s confrontational style of campaigning doesn’t work for everyone as Chhaya Verma, a Congress leader from Chhattisgarh, learnt the hard way. She had bagged her party’s nomination for the prestigious Raipur Lok Sabha constituency, but when she tried to emulate Arvind Kejriwal, the ticket was taken away from her.
Ms Verma is from the Kurmi community, a dominant Other Backward Classes category in Chhattisgarh. Her Bharatiya Janata Party rival and five-time MP Ramesh Bais dismissed her as a “fused bulb” when she was given the ticket. Ms Verma called Mr Bais’ jibe “sexist”, and inspired by Mr Kejriwal’s move to confront Narendra Modi with a 19-point questionnaire, she stormed Mr Bais’ official residence with a 17-point questionnaire, to expose his “non-performance” during his almost 25-year-long tenure as MP.
She was supported by her colleagues, especially former minister and MLA Satyanarayan Sharma, an aspirant for the Raipur Lok Sabha ticket. What transpired in the meeting between Mr Bais and Ms Verma is yet to be made public, but the lady seemed somewhat mellowed afterwards. “I gave him the questionnaire,” was all she said. Mr Bais, on the other hand, said, “She sought my blessings for victory, but being her rival, I could not do so.”
On March 13, the Congress leadership replaced Ms Verma as the party’s Raipur candidate and gave the ticket to Mr Sharma, known among his followers as “Sattu Bhaiya”.
Although, Congress leaders are trying to justify this move by claiming Ms Verma was too weak a candidate to take on the veteran, Mr Bais, a section in the party feels her plight is of her own making and questioned her wisdom in following Mr Kejriwal’s style of politics in the Congress.
“Kejriwal knows he has nothing to lose by indulging in funny antics, but she should have known by now how perilous it can be to be afflicted by the Kej-riwal syndrome,” one of her supporters remarked feeling sorry for her state.
PASSWORD, anyone?
In this age of technology and social media, most political parties ensure that they have a presence in the new medium.
The All-India Congress Committee directed its unit in Assam to make sure they were on Twitter, Facebook etc to counter the high-tech campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party even hosted workshops to encourage their district units, legislators and ministers to make the most of the new platform.
The efforts paid off with Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and his ministers and legislators opening accounts on social networking sites.
But as some tech-savvy students soon discovered, hundreds of Assam Congress workers have opened accounts but their handles remain inactive.
The Chief Minister opened his Twitter account on October 2, 2012, but has tweeted only 45 times so far — the last one on February 10. His forest minister Rockybul Hussain tweeted last on October 13, 2013.
Only health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is active on Twitter and is flooded with queries that he responds to. The accounts of most other Congressmen are either inactive or not used. In fact, the office-bearers in Rajeev Bha-wan claim that many of them have forgotten their passwords!
Pickpockets make hay at rally
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Lucknow has left many of those who attended it poorer, as pickpockets were active and lightened many a pocket. Bharatiya Janata Party sources say more than a hundred persons, including journalists covering the event, had their pockets picked during the rally.
“We found about two dozen wallets at the rally ground from which the money was missing but the cards were intact. We traced the owners through the identity cards, driving licences and bank cards and returned their wallets. After learning that some missing wallets were in the party office, over a hundred people came inquiring about their missing wallets. Nearly a dozen people lost their Notebooks and iphones at the rally too,” said a BJP leader.
Hearing about this, a Samajwadi leader was quick to sneak in a barb. “This just shows the kind of crowd that Modi rallies are attracting. You people had better beware of his government.” The BJP-wallah returned the “compliment” with, “We only have pickpockets but the Samajwadis have rapists, dacoits and burglars in their fold.” The battle, it seems, has st begun.
An aborted take-off
Nearly a month ago when anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare announced with Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee by his side that she was the most suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister, Didi was on cloud nine. Smelling an opportunity, suddenly a bunch of wheeler-dealers from Delhi informed Ms Banerjee that India was waiting for her. She was advised to embark on a whirlwind tour of Delhi and other parts of North India. She herself thought that neighbouring Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand would also welcome her with open arms.
North-eastern states were already on her radar and she has visited Tripura and Assam. Narendra Modi may have entrusted Bharatiya Janata Party with a mission to bag 272 plus seats. Ms Banerjee was told by the anti-corruption crusader that all she needed was 100 seats from across India to stake her claim for the top job. Clearly swept off her feet by the hallulejahs that were being showered on her by her new allies, Ms Banerjee planned an elaborate itinerary of nearly a dozen states including Mr Modi’s Gujarat. However, her aspirational castle-in-the-air crashed when empty chairs greeted her at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi last week. A much smarter Anna avoided the humility of presiding over a flop show by skipping the much-touted rally. He later distanced herself from her and refused to endorse her prime ministerial ambitions.
Brought to the ground with a thud, Ms Banerjee has abandoned her plans to enthral the people of other states with her oratorial skills. She has now decided to double the number of meetings she would address for the 42 Trinamool Congress candidates in Bengal. With her dreams of addressing the nation from the Red Ford on next Independence Day, Didi is heartbroken. Her Bengal candidates are however elated.
