New Delhi

April 23, 2004

CINE-ACTOR SUNIL SHETTY COMES TO THE RESCUE OF SHIV SENA CANDIDATE

When Munnabhai Sunjay Dutt defied his promise to Shiv
Sena supremo Bal Thackeray to campaign for the first time for
his father Sunil Dutt in the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha
constituency, most upset was his namesake journalist-turned
politician Sanjay Nirupam contesting on the Shiv Sena ticket.
Both are friends and hence Sanjay was confident Munnabhai, who had never campaigned for his father who had won the seat four times, would not spoil his prospects. Sanjay is a Rajya Sabha member and hence it does not matter if he loses the seat and he even knew on the day he filed the nomination that Sunil Dutt has better chances of winnng again. He, however, has a reason to cheer up as Munnabhai's actor buddy Suniel Shetty has decided to
campaign for the Shiv Sena on the last day of campaigning on
Saturday. Shetty does not want to spoil his relations with the
Dutts and hence he first informed Sunil Dutt about his move and then only told Nirupam that he will be campaigning whole of Saturday just to balance the effect of Sunjay Dutt on the
admirers of the Bollywood

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WOOING THE MUSLIMS - WITH A VENGEANCE

A BJP candidate promising the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is nothing new but a BJP candidate in Assam has been promising construction of Mosques if she were elected. The promise has come from Jebin Barbhuyan contesting for the Muslim-majority Dhubri Lok Sabha seat. She kicks off her campaign every day after offering the morning "namaz" and moves around the constituency using the masjid card to woo the Muslim voters. She has been promising to build mosques in every area to save the Muslims from walking long distances for offering prayers. The local BJP activists are, however, not enthused by Jebin's style of appeasing the
Muslims as they are keeping away from her campaign, dubbing the mother of two as an "outsider" who is not from their ranks. Unfazed Jebin carries on with a small band of supporters as she goes round the riverine settlements along the Brahmaputra, pointing out how the Vajpayee Government had provided a score of Haj pilgrim facilities that were lacking during four decades of the Congress rule.

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AN 8-YEAR OLD CONGRESS CAMPAIGNER IN DELHI

The fiercest critic of the NDA government in the electioneering
in Delhi that has just picked up with the closing of the
nominations on Friday is not a Congress heavyweight, but an
eight-year-old Sadhana Bharati, a primary student of the Central School in East Delhi. Crowds gather to listen to this little campaigner who charms everybody with her typical style in rubishing the BJP's claims of 'India Shining' and the
'feel-good' factor as she shouts in Hindi amid thunderous
clapping: "When there is unemployment and poverty across the country, why feel good?" Pokhran II nuclear tests,
India-Pakistan cricket series, Kargil war, coffin scam and even
privatisation of PSUs find mention in her speeches. Winner of
the elocution contest in her school on patriotism last year,
Bharati says the situation in the country at the best is
"deal-good."

The BJP candidates' campaign is being carried on by a battery of the Bollywood and TV personalities but they are no match to this little girl, who was first spotted for her oratory campaigning alongside Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Sadhvi Uma Bharti. The BJP candidates have more reason to be disturbed as the little Sadhana mimicks Deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani in her short speeches that she makes at the election rallies and the roadside corner meetings riding on the "Nyay Raths" of the Congress moving around the capital.

The BJP candidates have a reason to worry as the smart girl is not afraid to take on the Prime Minister. "After the Gujarat
riots, when Vajpayee went abroad he said the incident lowered India's prestige in the world. But when he returned, he backed the Narendra Modi government," she remarked at a rally.

The BJP has, however, ultimately found a way out to silence her as it has complained to the Election Commission that the
Congress was guilty of encouraging child labour which is illegal since the party has been paying to her father Rajesh Rajput for the job. Rajput, however, denies his daughter campaigning for the sake of money as he flaunts his credentials as an old Congress activist from Uttar Pradesh.

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FAKE EVMS TO EDUCATE VOTERS - COULD HAVE OTHER USES TOO!

Don't be carried away to rush to the Election Commission to
complain about the Electoral Voting Machines (EVMs) being sold openly in the market as a candidate from Bihar did to allege the possibility of a very large-scale rigging using these EVMs flooding his constituency. These are only fake EVMs but they are made of fibreblass, complete with lights and buttons, to look like the real voting machines. The candidates are buying them in bulk at prices ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 800 to educate their voters on how to cast the votes right way using the modern gadget being used by the Election Commission for voting throughout the country.

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ARUN JAITLEY - A PM IN THE MAKING ?

Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, who is a moderate face among the second generation of the BJP leaders, may become the claimant for the top slot as the successor of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is the moderate image of Vajpayee that is being used by the party to seek votes in his name while Jaitley has been winning the BJP leaders' hearts with his own moderate style of winning one after another state in the Assembly elections. The first was Gujarat where he found no difficulty in his moderate style even in helping out the hardcore Narendra Modi and that too in the midst of the cries against Modi for the anti-Muslim riots in the state. Uma Bharti was yet another die-hard religious hardcore leader whom Jaitley helped in winning the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. His supporters are quite enthusiastic that he will make the hat-trick if the BJP succeeds in winning the Karnataka Assembly elections as he is the overall incharge of the party campaign in the state.

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THE GROOMING OF A NEHRU-GANDHI

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her spokesmen may keep repeating that the Prime Minister will be chosen by their
coalition, if elected to power, only after the elections while
everybody else in the Congress is quite frank that it can be
nobody else except Sonia herself. The same is happening with regard to Rahul Gandhi contesting for the first time from
Amethi. His mother stoutly denies that he was being built up as the heir of the Nehru-Gandhi family but those who have prepared the campaign video films have presented Rahul as the successor of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He is telling the people in the film that he had entered politics to fulfil the dreams of his family. A score of video films shot by the Congress with the focus on Sonia Gandhi and her children are of five to six minutes and they are being shown using large screens mounted on the TATA vans. In one of the films, late Rajiv Gandhi is shown stating that whenever you look for him, you will find him in the form of Sonia Gandhi while his soul is in Rahul and Priyanka. "Dharti mata ke he sipahi dono banayenge bharat ko dulhan sathiyon," says late Rajiv.