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Lok Sabha only rule?

Conscious that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has remained a member of the Rajya Sabha throughout his tenure, L.K. Advani has suggested that if the NDA came to power, the Constitution will be amended to ensure that the PM should be from the Lok Sabha. Apart from Dr. Singh, two other members of the Rajya Sabha have occupied the PM’s post. When Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister in 1966, she was a member of the Upper House. She was later elected to the Lok Sabha. When H.D. Deve Gowda became PM, he was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

Tagore, Bose can stay

Afurore kicked up by an Election Commission order on pictures of political leaders in government offices, was settled with the portraits of icons like Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose retaining their positions on the walls of the Writers Building, the red brick structure that houses the West Bengal government. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said that if the order meant bringing down pictures of Tagore and Bose, then he would not abide by it. State chief electoral officer Debashis Sen clarified that the question of removing the pictures of revered leaders like Bose or icons like Tagore did not arise. The directive pertained only to pictures of presentday leaders which might influence voters.

A functional appeal

`Jugaad'in western Uttar Pradesh is a locally assembled passenger vehicle (a trolley fitted with the engine of a water pump). A cheap and popular mode of transport in the region, it does not require registration. During his tenure from 2000 to 2002, former U.P. Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, stopped the crackdown on `jugaad' to woo people who were angry over the impounding of the vehicles. However, in the Assembly polls that followed, his party lost. Mr. Singh is now telling the people of western UP: "I saved your `jugaad,' but you ruined mine. This time please vote for lotus (the BJP's symbol) to make my `jugaad' work."

No tickets to ride

Ticketless travelling in trains is not uncommon in India, but claiming it as a matter of "right" is perhaps a bit much. Some 400 workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party boarded the Howrah Express from Surat, Broach and other stations in Gujarat to travel to Ahmedabad to attend a public meeting of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati's campaign launch in the State. At Vadodara station, they were forced to disembark for not having tickets. A senior party leader, Pradip Singh, rationalised: "BSP is a party of poor people and we do not have even Rs.100 to buy tickets. The railways are national property, meaning it is also our property."

Losing this deposit is news!

Candidates losing their deposit after the election is not news, but losing it even before filing nomination papers certainly is! But that’s what happened to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in Chitradurga: Janardhanaswamy was caught red faced when he found that he had lost the money he brought to deposit towards his nomination. Mr. Janardhanaswamy told the ministers accompanying him that he might have lost the money when he was lifted up by the supporters on their way to the office of the returning officer. Fortunately, the Social Welfare Minister, who was carrying money, lent Rs. 5,000 to the candidate.

Contributed by T. Ramakrishnan, Indrani Dutta, Sandeep Joshi, Manas Dasgupta and Firoz Rozindar

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