Star performer
The author, Shashi Tharoor, was seemingly in greater demand than the member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor, while campaigning in Aizawl for the recently-concluded Mizoram assembly polls. In between meeting party workers, entrepreneurs and citizens to mobilise support for his party, which is trying hard to regain some lost ground in the state, the Congress’ star campaigner was in his element, signing his books, posing for photographs with his fans and admirers and participating in an impromptu reunion of Stephanians, among other activities. Even at the airport, while returning on the Aizawl-Guwahati flight, he was swarmed by admirers for selfies. Inside the flight, the cabin crew, too, wanted a photograph with him. Tharoor smilingly obliged one and all. Such was his aura and fan base that a lady observed that he would have won hands down had he been the chief ministerial candidate for Mizoram. Clearly, there are politicians and there is Tharoor, a star campaigner and a star in his own right.
Whipping boys
Campaigning during the elections brings out the best and the worst, the funny and the bizarre in politicians. One saw all the above traits in the Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, at a rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Sarma, who is one of Bharatiya Janata Party’s coveted campaigners, was at his best. Taking a dig at the Congress, Sarma said that he had become CM to tighten the screws against Babur and his ilk or what use would his chief ministership be. During elections in Assam, it was Aurangzeb and the Battle of Saraighat. The Mughals have been his favourite whipping boys during elections ever since he joined the BJP. That is not all. He even attacked the Congress veteran, Kamal Nath, for according the ‘most favoured nation’ status to Pakistan when he was the Union commerce minister. Sarma added that the BJP does not have to improve ties with Pakistan. Rather it can teach Pakistan a lesson if it messes with India. Anything goes in the name of campaigning in India — the more bizarre, the better.
Rowdy bunch
The recently-concluded winter session of the Bihar legislative assembly had several incidents that left legislators and people red in the face. One of them was an incident of physical assault that did not draw much attention and got brushed under the carpet with just a warning amid the hullabaloo over other things. The Opposition members from the BJP frequently rushed to the well of the assembly, raising a din, waving placards, tearing papers, littering, toppling chairs, and protesting about everything possible. The marshals were constantly on their toes, trying to control the situation as
directed by the speaker. However, several of them were hit, kicked and punched by the BJP legislators.
“Such incidents were an exception previously, but have become a norm now. These MLAs are unimaginably rude and uncouth. They have no sanskaar. They don’t even know that we are just doing our duty,” one of the marshals said, sharing his angst. Another described how three legislators kicked and punched him from behind. When it became too much, they complained to the Speaker, who then issued a warning to the BJP members of the legislative assembly that stern action would be taken if such cases of physical attack happen again. The incidents have stopped, but legislators from other parties wondered whether some strict action should have been taken.
Sleepless nights
The former Karnataka CM and Lok Sabha member, DV Sadananda Gowda, dropped a bombshell by announcing his retirement from electoral politics. Another occupant of the same chair, BS Yediyurappa, immediately attributed the decision to a nudge from the party leadership to douse speculations about the reason. Instead, Yediyurappa has fuelled doubts in the minds of many Lok Sabha members from Karnataka about the BJP looking for fresh faces for the 2024 polls. This will surely give them sleepless nights ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
