National Elections 2004 Apr 30: Poll-Pourri

Cashing in
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For many in Rajasthan’s Pali Lok Sabha constituency, elections are the time for kamai (earning). This is because the sons of the soil, who have made it big in cities such as Mumbai and Ahmedabad, return home to try their luck at the hustings.

As in the past three general elections, this time too, big businessmen are in the fray in Pali. The Congress nominee, Surendra Surana, is a hotelier from Mumbai while his NCP rival and former MP, M.L. Jain, is a builder. Parties generally nominate only those who can campaign with their own resources. It is quite normal for those involved in the campaign and some voters too to expect “adequate” remuneration during `harvest time’. As in the case of a drought, almost everybody seems to love a good election. Those who don’t are the candidates without resources.

Worthy symbol
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Guess what is the election symbol of the internationally acclaimed management guru, Shiv Raj Khera, who is contesting from the prestigious South Delhi constituency in the coming Sabha polls?

Author of several “bestsellers,” this Independent has been allotted the “book” as his election symbol. “The book identifies with the cause I am fighting for: education for all,” Mr. Khera said at a press briefing recently. Not surprisingly then, he used the occasion to distribute his “symbol,” nay, his newly launched book, Freedom Is Not Free, along with a compact disc, to mediapersons. Not those to miss an opportunity to strike a personal rapport with the renowned motivator, some journalists even got the book autographed by him. Freedom might not come free, but at least some “symbols” do.

Rare event
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The contest in Bhiwani has assumed a strange character with the sons of three Haryana political heavyweights in the fray. The outcome here could be significant enough to redraw the contours of the State’s politics. The triangular face-off between Ajay Chautala (INLD), Kuldeep Bishnoi (Congress) and Surendra Singh (HVP) sons of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, State Congress chief Bhajan Lal and HVP leader Bansi Lal respectively recently led three youth to discuss the odds of such an event. One remarked that he had witnessed several historic events during his young life, including a celestial spectacle a few years ago, the tragic head-on clash between two airliners at nearby Charki-Dadri village and the launch of the new millennium. But the “clash of the titans”, this youth suggested to his friends, topped them all.

– Sunny Sebastian, Lalit K. Jha, K.V. Prasad