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Thursday, Apr 23, 2009
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BitsBytes

Starry, starry show

Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay flooded Ranchi with B-grade film stars, TV actors and stand up comedians. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha led by the former Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi, is following suit. He has enrolled the services of TV star Shweta Tiwari, Ram Gopal Verma’s latest find Nisha Kothari, and actress and “item girl” Koena Mitra. Ms. Mitra has been campaigning in favour of JVM candidates in the State, reading out handwritten lines at election rallies. The State appears to have been flooded with TV and film stars who don’t have much to do in Bollywood.

Raje and the Jodhpur royals

The former Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, doesn’t stay in Umaid Bhawan palace in Jodhpur any more. For the former ruler of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh, a close friend for many years, is now a political rival; his sister Chandresh Kumari is contesting the Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket. Ms. Chandresh Kumari’s nomination from Rajasthan came as a rude shock to Ms. Raje whose party, the BJP, has always enjoyed the public goodwill in Jodhpur generated by the royal family.

Fee hike triggers a storm

The recent fee hike by private schools has become an election issue in Jaipur with parent groups fielding a city businessman, Satyadev Chaddha, as an Independent to take the matter to the public. The Abhibhavak Samanvaya Samiti describes Mr. Chaddha as an “ambassador of change” and compares him with U.S. President Barack Obama. Mr. Chaddha, who has given three buildings to the parent groups for running a no-profit-no-loss school, says he is inspired by Mr. Obama, and wants to help children get education that’s fairly priced. Parent groups affirm their candidate will bring about a change since mainstream political parties are indifferent to the fee hike.

Subsidy for Pawar too!

Asset lists furnished by candidates never cease to surprise. Consider that of Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar. He has no land in his name to speak of. The Bharatiya Janata Party has taken this to heart. In a campaign meeting in Jalna, BJP leader Nitin Gadkari took note of Mr. Pawar’s “landless” status and promised him 35 kg of grain (wheat and rice) at Rs. 2 per kg. He also promised the same for Sonia Gandhi who owns no house and Rahul Gandhi who owns no car, counting them in his pro-poor agenda.

Swiss, who?

Asked by a reporter whether he would support L.K. Advani’s initiative to bring back Indian money from secret Swiss bank accounts, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray was nonplussed. “Swiss? Swiss? What Swiss?” he asked. Even after the reporter explained his question, the MNS chief was unmoved. “Forget getting money from international banks,” he thundered. “In Maharashtra our banks have gone into default. Why don’t you ask me about that? I’d be happy to talk about that.” Realising he wasn’t going to get the sound-byte he was desperately after, the reporter gave up.

(Contributed by Sujay Mehdudia, Sunny Sebastian, Mohammed Iqbal, Rahi Gaikwad and Ananth Krishnan)

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