The sunny side of campaigns
Mathura is busy singing the 1985 chartbuster Dhoop mein nikla na karo roop ki rani these days and the reason for this is Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Hema Malini.
When Hema Malini arrived in the temple town, she probably did not give a thought to the heat and dust that would be a part of the campaign. Hema has since probably realised that sunscreens alone cannot protect her peach-and-cream complexion from the scorching sun, so the yesteryears’ dream girl has started covering her entire face with her pallu during her roadshows.
Enthusiastic fans — who had lined up along the route to catch a glimpse of the star — were disappointed as Hema’s face was completely hidden by a long pallu. They booed the dream girl. A day later, Hema was back on the roads of Mathura — this time with outsized sunglasses and a large umbrella over her head. Hema’s obvious aversion to the sun is adversely affecting her campaign and evoking strong negative reactions from the people.
While the local BJP leaders are quietly watching the tamasha from a distance, the sun continues to shine brightly on Hema Malini.
Itching for a fight
While Addressing his maiden rally in Kolkata in February, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had launched strident attacks against the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), but he spared the Mamata Banerjee government.
In fact, Mr Modi tried to sell the idea of “Didi in Bengal and Modi in Delhi” to the people. He pointed out that if such a scenario emerged after Lok Sabha polls, then the people of Bengal would have laddoos in both hands. However, Ms Banerjee was not amused. Mr Modi’s confectionary analogy clearly left a bitter taste in her mouth because she feared that praise from Mr Modi may turn her Muslim votebank against her.
An important Muslim cleric demanded that Ms Banerjee target Mr Modi and the BJP more aggressively and unequivocally. A rattled Mamata intensified her attacks against BJP. Earlier she said people did not like “danga mukh (face of riots)”. Now she has started saying a person who foments communal violence could never become India’s Prime Minister.
When Mr Modi arrived in Siliguri on a second visit to the state on Thursday, he too was in a belligerent mood. Adopting a tit-for-tat, he called paribartan in the state a farce and claimed that Ms Banerjee has betrayed the people. He accused her of playing votebank politics and blamed her party for the Saradha chit fund scam.
Sources close to Ms Banerjee said that she was elated by Mr Modi’s diatribe against her. “Didi is confident that now her Muslim votes are consolidated,” he said. On wonders if iconic Urdu poet Ghalib envisaged such a situation when he said, Gaaliyan kha ke be-maza na hua (Even expletives did not leave a bad taste in the mouth)”.
Lalu’s Lowdown on love
Gleefully unmindful of his conviction in a fodder scam case and buoyed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress alliance, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been vehemently attacking the BJP and Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) in all his campaign meetings.
The 66-year-old politician has found his own steady marriage handy in his relentless ridicule of what he calls the “divorce between the JD(U) and the BJP”. Mr Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi, 55, is a former Bihar chief minister like him and she is contesting from Saran, where Mr Yadav had won in 2009.
In almost every rally in Bihar, Mr Yadav tells the crowd: “The BJP and the JD(U) have had a divorce because their love marriage failed. Does a love marriage ever last long? Family guardians do not guide a couple in a love marriage. My marriage with Rabri Devi has lasted so long and so well because it was an arranged marriage”.
Mr Yadav’s audience laughs out loud every time, though it remains unclear how much they agree with his opinion delivered in his unmatched rustic style.
FATHER, DEAR FATHER
It was supposed to be an exercise to showcase unity, but Congress leaders ended up doing the exact opposite.
Congress leader Chaya Verma and Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) president Bhupesh Baghel, two senior leaders of Chhattisgarh, who held a joint media conference in Raipur on April 7, to show unity in the party, ended up portraying themselves as “victims” of their “fathers’ machinations”.
Ending her two-week-long sulk following withdrawal of party ticket for Raipur Lok Sabha constituency she had been promised, Ms Verma said, “Mr Sharma has called me his daughter. How can a daughter be bitter towards her father?”
But it didn’t take her long to bare her heart, and she told journalists that she was truly upset over the manner in which she had been dumped.
Mr Sharma had made a public announcement of his wholehearted support to Ms Verma after she was given the party ticket. Soon, however, Mr Sharma was in Delhi, lobbying for his nomination from Raipur constituency. Finally, the battle for Raipur ticket, that lasted nearly three weeks, was won by him, leaving Ms Verma embittered. Mr Baghel, breaking his silence for the first time over his father Nandlal Baghel’s “rebellion”, accused his father of making controversial statements to gain media publicity.
Senior Baghel has accused the Congress of ignoring backward class candidates in ticket distribution and announced his support for BJP candidates hailing from those communities. His statements have stirred a controversy in the Congress, causing huge embarrassment to the PCC president.
