New Delhi

April 17, 2004

Just four days to go before people start casting votes for the
new Lok Sabha, it is now becoming clear that Atal Bihari Vajpayee is there only as a temporary Prime Minister if NDA musters the majority as the baton is to be passed over to Lal Krishna Advani.

And, if there were any doubts as to who would be the PM if the Congress and the likeminded secular parties secure the majority, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar removed them all by accepting that it is the Congress which will have the PM's post. He was quite frank in his press conference in Nagpur on Thursday that he knows his limitations that "a leader of a party contesting 30 odd seats can't be in the race for the Prime Minister."

The Congress is contesting the largest number of seats and as such it would certainly have more members in the new House than any other party to have own representative as the PM. Nobody in the Congress has doubts that only Sonia Gandhi qualifies for that position. While Pawar did not name
Sonia Gandhi as the PM candidate like Vajpayee not disclosing Advani's name as his successor, it was Pawar's confidant and NCP's No 2 Praful Patel who declared at the rally addressed by Sonia Gandhi in his constituency that "it is time Sonia Gandhi leads all the secular forces."

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Telephone Campaign Called Off

The hi-tech Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has abruptly called off his telephone programme "Our Vote - Our Future" telecast live on TV after realising that it would only reduce votes of the Telugu Desam Party as all that he got in response to his phone calls to voters at random were
protests at drinking water shortage, power shortage and a score of problems that have not been solved by his government. Most of the 165 voters he spoke over phone had more brickbats for him than any praise. Since the local newspapers sought to highlight the questions that
embarrassed Chandrababu, he preferred to better scrap the programme and better opt for TV interviews by journalists who do not ask embarrassing questions. for free.

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Kalyan gets NSG security again

Former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh has been given Z-plus NSG security again after it was withdrawn three years ago following his stormy exit from the BJP.

Kalyan Singh had moved the Delhi high court against the withdrawal of security in July 2001, saying that it was done at the behest of prime minister A.B.Vajpayee and L.K.Advani.

Now with his return to the BJP, and being the BJP pointman in UP, the Z-category security has been restored to him.