New Delhi

April 13, 2004

TANDON'S SAREES CAN UNSEAT VAJPAYEE

Apart from the political advantage that the Congress and other rival parties are trying to take from the tragic death of 21 women in the stampede at a "saree" distribution function in Lucknow, the Bhartiya Janata Party's prime worry is that it can even result in unseating of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Precedent is the disqualification of a Prime Minister for similar distribution of 3000 "sarees" and "dhotis." Late Raj Narain had got disqualified Indira Gandhi in an election petition on this very ground. That is why the first legal advice phoned from Delhi by the BJP's legal experts to BJP leader Lalji Tandon was to deny his role in organising the function for celebrating his birthday.

Tandon has been an election agent of Vajpayee in the 1999 elections and the Election Commission already has a complaint filed before the function accusing Tandon of distributing "sarees" to the poor women to bribe them to vote for the BJP candidate, that is Vajpayee. The BJP is trying to take the stand that Vajpayee has not filed his nomination papers and hence the Code of Conduct that prohibits bribery of the voters by the candidate or anybody on his behalf does not apply in the instant case. Even cited is the case of Poonam Azad, wife of cricketer MP Kirti Azad, who was charged with distribution of some material to the poor during her contest for an Assembly seat in Delhi. She denied her permission to anybody to do so and the Election Commission chose to rest the issue there. Legal luminary Ram Jethmalani is contesting from Lucknow and he will not allow such an issue to rest. Vajpayee is to file his nomination papers for the Lucknow seat on Thursday but the BJP is now considering if he should also contest from some other constituency to escape the legal infirmity. The choice of the second seat is, however, limited as nominations are now open for only those that go to the polls in the last round on May 10.

On the basis of the complaint, the Election Commission had alerted the district administration of Lucknow in writing to stop the function if it relates to bribing the voters. The Commission's advisory was ignored as Lalji Tandon has been organising similar birthday bash every year. Anybody moving the election petition will find this directive of the Election Commission as an evidence of the element of bribery which is enough for disqualifying a candidate. In any case, the BJP may nominate some other leader as Vajpayee's poll agent instead of Lalji who has been otherwise always doing all work for the Prime Minister and not allowing anybody else to interfere.

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AFTER ATAL WHO?

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convener and Defence Minister George Fernandes has made it clear that he is not a contender for the Prime Minister's post. In an interview to a financial daily, he says Lalji (as everyone calls Lal Krishna Advani) alone will have the right to become the PM in case Vajpayee decides to step down. Stressing that first and foremost, there is no truth in rumours that Vajpayee may step down and ask Advani to become the PM. But if such a situation emerges, "it is but obvious that the deputy prime minister as the leader of the largest party in Parliament will definitely be called to lead the government. He won't have any problems to work under Advani as he says he has been working with Advani and others since the emergency days.

In yet another interview, Fernandes is not optimistic about the NDA sweeping the polls as the BJP leaders keep harping. All that he sees is a little more seats but he stresses that he was willing "to give and take 5 or 10."

He has also revealed that all allies of the NDA were not consulted i formulation of the NDA agenda for the eletions. Only those allies who were in Delhi or around were consulted. Of course, the issues were discussed within his own party--the Janata Dal(United). The agenda was drafted by
himself, Jaswant Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and the PM's OSD Sudheendra Kulkarni, Fernandes revealed while pointing out that Trinamul Congress leder Mamta Bannerjee had signed the agenda document and hence nobody can say that she was opposed to inclusion of the Ayodhya dispute.

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FOREIGNER RAHUL?

BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan was pulled up by the Prime Minister and the BJP President when he spoke of both the children of Congress President Sonia Gandhi also having the infirmity to hold a high office of the PM. NDA convener George Fernandes, however, not only holds the same view but he has expanded it further to dub both Priyanka and Rahul as "foreigners." His argument is that once you are an Italian citizen, you remain an Italian citizen and so Sonia Gandhi continues to remain an Italian by birth and since Priyanka and Rahul were born to an Italian lady, they too are Italian citizens. He elaborates further that Sonia Gandhi had not yet acquired the Indian citizenship at the time of the birth of her two children and so the children cannot claim to be the Indians.

In a related development, the BJP has started a whisper campaign about Rahul Gandhi's "foreign connection", citing his friendship with Columbian girl Juvenitta who had also joined Rahul, Priyanka and family in the New Year celebrations in Lakshadweep. Balbir Punj, journalist-turned Rajya Sabha
member ahd head of the BJP think tank, says: "Rahul should be ready for public scrutiny. Like his father, he may choose to marry a foreigner." But what is his problem if Rahul really marries the Columbian girl? His argument is that Juvenitta, like Sonia Gandhi, may also acquire the Indian
citizenship and enter Parliament and that means the nation will face another foreign origin lady trying to become the PM.

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ADVANTAGE JOGI

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi is practically paralysed from below the waist because of a road accident but that may not be a disadvantage to him in contesting the election for the Mahasamund Lok Sabha seat. Already a sympathy wave has been created in the constituency as his supporters have started organising prayer meetings for his speedy recovery and tapes of his previous speeches are being prepared for distribution at the public meetings. Even the BJP's candidate Vidya Charan Shukla, a former Union Minister, is no more anti-Jogi in their rhetoric while Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has cancelled the public meeting he was to address in Mahasamund. It was at the instance of Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani that the BJP government of Chhattisgarh not only provided the state plane to rush him to Mumbai but also announced to bear the entire expenses of his treatment. During a BJP rally in Mahasamund, nobody attacked Jogi and Vidya Charan Shukla in fact said that he wants Jogi to recover soon and return to the constituency to give him a good fight.

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PM AT RISK

The Special Protection Group (SPG) that provides round-the-clock security to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is concerned at a senior police officer trying to sneak into his rally at Dhanbad and whipping up his service revolver to fire a round in the air when he was stopped. The SPG
crack commando force was raised because of the killing of Indira Gandhi by her own guards and hence the SPG officials are now contemplating to send an advance team not only to make the security arrangements for the PM wherever he goes but send another team to verify antecedent of all those who are locally deployed for the security. Dhumka Deputy Superintendent of Police Prasanna Kumar Khalko who has been arrested for creating the scare with his firing when he was prevented by another DSP from entering the venue since he was not among the officers deputed on the PM's security duty. The SPG has deputed an officer to interrogate Prasanna, who is winner of the President's medal and otherwise does not have any bad service record, to know what was his motive in creating the sensation. He was arrested when he tried to flee in his jeep through the ropes. Not to take the risk of any such incident as some other officer in uniform or some imposter in uniform can sneak into the close proximity of the SPG protectees like Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi, the SPG is now issuing special photo identity cards to all those detained for the security duty. These cards will carry signatures of different SPG officials for different venues to make the security arrangements foolproof.

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LALJI CANVASSING FOR CONG!

Is Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani appealing to vote for the Congress if you do not want to vote for BJP? Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala sought to give that twist to Advani's remarks in Haryana during his "rath yatra" that the country was fast moving towards bi-polarity in which only two parties would matter and all other parties lose their relevance.