Change in equations

Off the record

Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad — cut to  size politically — is minus his usual airs.

Stripped of his ministry, he  mingles with dignitaries and seeks to re-invent himself in the Ashok Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Meanwhile, his so called ‘Fourth Front Partners’ and SP leaders Mulayam Sigh Yadav and Amar Singh are seen sitting on the back benches. Both are very quite.

Later at the tea-party, Lalu tries to humour Rahul by putting a ‘Rasgulla’ in his mouth.

CPI leader Sitaram Yechuri is also trying to connect with him and Sonia Gandhi. Priyanka passes by smiling at the RJD leader. An informal Rahul calls her out “Priyanka… Priyanka...” and joins her. Mother too comes and completes the power circle.

A politically vanquished Ram Vilas Paswan, not long ago nursing prime ministerial ambitions and throwing tantrums, cranes his neck amidst the media huddle and politely asks Sonia Gandhi “Aapne kuch liya nahin...” (you did not eat anything). Times have indeed changed. Party is over for one and begins for another. But, yes, there are no full stops in politics.

Deepak K Upreti in New Delhi

Recycling bouquets

Giving flower bouquets while meeting dignitaries and political leaders is an age-old custom. But shelling out money might not be a welcome idea, at a time the world faces an economic meltdown.

Hundreds of Congress workers and leaders congregated at the Karnataka Bhavan to greet S M Krishna and Veerappa Moily, the newly-appointed Central ministers, who were felicitated by the state Congress unit.

As expected, the leaders and their followers did not come empty-handed at the tea party. And within a short span of time the hall was flooded with colourful bouquets of different sizes.

But the real story unfolded much later, when the two new ministers left the venue.
Immediately, there was a mad rush among the visitors to get hold of those flowers, which they had ‘gifted’ to their ‘loved’ leaders a few minutes back.

As this correspondent could not comprehend the reasons behind such an action, a leader came to his rescue and said, “Look, we have to meet so many leaders here. Why waste money by buying new flower bunch when there are so may here. How can anyone know whether these are second or third-hand flowers?”

Ajith Athrady New Delhi

An excuse for losing

There are many reasons to win a seat or lose it. But if your name appears first in an EVM, you attract more attention than others is the argument heard post-poll results.
Among 28 LS constituencies in Karnataka, in eight constituencies the candidates whose names topped the EVM have emerged victorious. H Vishwanath, the Congress MP, opted to prefix his name with Adagur, his native village, while filing his nomination papers for Mysore. Thus he got serial number.

Seven other candidates, whose name appeared first in the EVM and made it to LS are — P C Gaddigoudar, D B Chandre Gowda, H D Kumaraswamy, Ananth Kumar, Ramesh Katti, Janardhana Swamy and Ananth Kumar Hegde.

The EC, while arranging the names, gives primacy to candidates of recognised national parties and state political parties. They are followed by registered unrecognised parties. Independent candidates find place in the third slot. In each category, names are arranged in the alphabetical order.

JD(S) candidate in Davangere, Kalle Ramesh, serial number one, secured 10,480 votes even after retiring from the fray in support of the Congress. The Congress lost the seat with a thin margin of 2,024 votes.

Satish Shile in Bangalore