A tale of feud, unity and cash confusion

In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them face upwards on the table, said H G Wells.

Some politicians in Gujarat seem to have taken the British author literally. In one such incident, a mother-in-law who was denied ticket by the ruling BJP, decided to come out in the open to lay bare her cards, and opposed the ticket given to her daughter-in-law.

Rangeshwari Chauhan, wife of sitting Parliamentarian from Panchmahal Prabhatsinh Chauhan, is upset that the BJP decided to field her daughter-in-law Sumanben Chauhan. Rangeshwari took to the social media to vent her anger. "If Prabhatsinh has had his mother's milk, I challenge him to campaign in the constituency!"

"We are with the BJP, but the party should know that you cannot have imported bootlegger candidate," she told reporters. "I am only bothered about people and their welfare. I do not work for my family."

The trouble, in fact, started brewing almost 10 days ago when Prabhatsinh Chauhan laid bare his cards and threatened the party of revolt if his wife was not given ticket in Kalol constituency in Panchmahal. He was confident that the party would have to play safe as he was playing an open game. However, the party played smart and fielded his daughter-in-law.

Rangeshwari said there were 22 candidates other than her who had sought to contest as BJP candidates. She said the party could have selected anyone but her daughter-in-law. Interestingly, her son Pravin Chauhan, who was with the Congress, switched to the BJP a couple of months ago.

Her daughter-in-law, on the other hand, claimed that she would win and that there was no difference of opinion with her mother-in-law and no infighting within the family.

United trio of Cong

In another incident, three Congress aspirants from Savli constituency put up a show of unity on Friday. Khumansinh Chauhan, Sagar Brahmabhatt and Vijaysinh Vaghela took out a massive rally of supporters to file nominations. All the three filed their nominations and claim that irrespective of the party's choice, the other two would work for the nominated person.

"The BJP was trying to create a rift and spread rumours, so we decided to openly show our detractors that we are all one and we will defeat them," Sagar Brahmabhatt told mediapersons.

Making a 'change'

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Gunwant Rathore decided to protest against demonetisation by paying the candidacy deposit in change.

He turned up at the election officer's cabin, carrying coins in the denominations of Re 1, Rs 2 and Rs 5. Technically, Rathore was right in paying by cash, but the returning officer had a tough time as the coins weighed 15 kg. Seven people were employed to count them before accepting Rathore's nomination.

On the other hand, independent candidate Krutika Vaidya wanted to make the payment either in cheque or via cashless mode, in the wake of the "less-cash" campaign being promoted in the country. However, she could file her nomination for Navsari constituency in South Gujarat only after paying in cash.