The Hindu : National : Campaign by post, literally

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Saturday, Apr 04, 2009
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Campaign by post, literally

It’s an election campaign by post, literally. CPI(M) candidate from West Bengal’s Raiganj constituency, Bireswar Lahiri, has despatched letters to the voters in the constituency. More than 12 lakh letters have already been despatched. “Since it is not possible for me to go to every voter and ask for votes, I thought of this,” Mr. Lahiri said. The two-page letter, penned by Mr. Lahiri, accuses the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of being unprincipled, and says this is why their allies are abandoning them and joining the Third Front one after the other.

Political musical chairs!

It was musical chairs of a kind during the filing of nomination in Kolar (SC) Lok Sabha Constituency by Congress nominee and Union Minister K.H. Muniyappa on Thursday. While adhering to the rule that only five people can accompany the candidate, the Congress team managed to accommodate all the leaders accompanying Mr. Muniyappa, including legislators M. Narayanswamy, Amaresh, V. Muniyappa, V.R. Sudarshan, Nazir Ahmad, former Minister Nisar Ahmad, District Congress Committee president S.N. Bisse Gowda, besides Rathnamma, the wife of Mr. Muniyappa. How did they do that? During the process of submitting the papers, all of them were able to sit with the candidate, by rotation! The officials appear to have turned a blind eye to this game of political musical chairs.

An unlikely tale

The hangers-on at party offices are sometimes more interesting than party leaders. Reporters who turned up for one of the numerous press conferences at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bangalore encountered a young, visually-impaired man from Bidar in North Karnataka who had a colourful story to tell. Manjunatha, a self-confessed fan of Oscar Fernandes, claimed that he had lived in the house of the senior Congress leader for three months and had been looked after “like his own child.” Mr. Fernandes had sent him to Bangalore office promising to speak to the leaders here to give him a job as a lift operator, he said. He landed here to find to his dismay that the office had no lift! The office staff and party didn’t know what to make of his stories.

South Chennai to Delhi

The South Chennai Lok Sabha constituency has many features to its credit. Two of its representatives, T.T. Krishnamachari and R. Venkataraman, became Union Finance Ministers. Mr. Krishnamchari held the Finance portfolio in two spells: 1956-1958 and 1962-1965. [In 1962, he was elected unopposed from Tiruchendur]. Mr. Venkataraman was Finance Minister from 1980-1982 and Defence Minister for two more years, before becoming Vice-President in 1984 and President three years late r. T. R. Baalu, who won from South Chennai since 1996, was a Minister from 1996-1998 and again since 1999.

(Contributed by Raktima Bose, Vishwa Kundapura, Bageshree S. and T. Ramakrishnan)

Correction: The article, `The Machine Count' published in these pages on March 29, 2009, stated that EVMs would be used throughout the country, barring Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir. The Election Commission has clarified that EVMs will be used throughout the country for the 2009 election.

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