The Hindu : POLL-POURRI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 20, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

POLL-POURRI

Joining the BJP?

When the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, walked into the central BJP office at the regular press briefing time, there was a flurry. The assembled journalists wondered what he was doing there as he had not been seen near the party office for a long time.

There has been a virtual standoff between Mr. Joshi and the party leadership following the court order in the Ayodhya case. The court had discharged the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, while holding that charges be framed against Mr. Joshi and others.

As it turned out, Mr. Joshi had come to the party office to enrol some Haryana politicians as BJP members — the kind of task that is usually performed by the party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, and the general secretary, Pramod Mahajan. But one member of the press corps quipped: "Perhaps Mr. Joshi has come here to become a member of the BJP."

Cricket the winner

Pakistan or India may win or lose a cricket match, but politicians and political parties have certainly lost out to cricket. In fact, they have given up trying to compete.

The Congress manifesto, scheduled to be released today, has been put off till March 22. The reason: the ongoing cricket series in Pakistan.

The BJP, which has held uninterrupted daily briefings, sometimes more than one a day, today decided to close shop. The reason: all eyes and ears were glued to television sets showing the India-Pakistan match in Peshawar. Cricket was also blamed by party leaders for the poor public response in some places to the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani's `rath yatra.'

A rebel

For a cadre-based party such as the BJP, any rebellion is a thorn in the flesh. And so it must have felt when Paresh Nayak resigned from the party to contest the coming Assembly elections from the Bhubaneswar segment as an Independent.

Although the formal poll process is yet to begin, Mr. Nayak's supporters have started painting the walls across the State capital to garner support for their leader.

That's not all. The slogan, "Aamar Neta Paresh Bhai, Jindabad (Our leader Paresh Bhai, Jindabad)," has also been painted on a wall of the building housing the BJP's State headquarters.

God of peace

The Akali leadership seems overwhelmed by the gesture of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to choose Punjab to launch the NDA's election campaign.

At a recent rally at Patiala's polo grounds, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president, G.S. Tohra, described Mr. Vajpayee as Aman da devta (god of peace). He also had the gathering cheering with the slogan "Teeji vari Atal Bihari" (Let it be Atal Bihari for the third tenure).

However, the Akali-BJP candidate from Patiala, Kanwaljit Singh, modified the slogan as "Vari Vari Atal Bihari" (Atal Bihari again and again). Mr. Vajpayee was visibly amused at the slogans as the crowd roared in favourable response.

No kidding this

The voters of Tiruchendur constituency in Tamil Nadu will soon witness a strange spectacle — a woman with a month-old infant in her arms knocking at their doors for votes.

Radhika Selvi, the DMK's Tiruchendur candidate, delivered a boy nine days ago in a north Chennai hospital. Nonetheless, she is all set to hit the campaign trail with her child from the first week of April. She is not just seeking votes, but justice from the people for the "killing" of her husband, Venkatesa Pannaiyar, in a police encounter in Chennai last year. Posters greeting the arrival of "Pannaiyar's cub" have already sprung up in Tiruchendur.

- Neena Vyas, Prafulla Das, Sarabjit Pandher,

Radha Venkatesan

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