General Elections 2014 – Day 8

Anna Hazare and Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee's Flop Show
Anna Hazare and Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee’s Flop Show

Impossible! This cannot be happening. Someone stood up fiery didi ! Who had the wild guts to do that? Well, a small man with supposedly a high morale – Anna Hazare.

Story has it that anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare was supposed to attend a rally in New Delhi along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. But he turned it down at the last moment on health grounds.

No, no. He did not turn it down because the Ram Lilla Maidan was deserted. So what if the same Maidan where he had once pulled lakhs of crowd for his anti-corruption movement in 2012, today saw only about 3,000 people.

Mamata, reacting to this situation said, “I left my work and came here” (and this is how you treat me). It has been only few days that Anna had endorsed Trinamool Congress and this rally was supposed to mark the beginning of Mamata’s national campaign.

Nevertheless, Mamata addressed the rally and scoffed BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi saying that he is not an opponent to the Congress-led UPA. Whatever that means!

While Anna stood up didi in Delhi, Mumbai was briefly harassed by someone, making many commuters in local trains reel in anger. Now, who harassed these aam aadmis? Oh! It was the Aam Aadmi chief only – Arvind Kejriwal. As part of his campaign, he decided to travel by local transport and there was utter chaos at the railway station, with people pushing each other and metal detectors being broken. Kejriwal is of the strong opinion that beacon cars and convoys cause lot of inconvenience to common people.

Point taken. But Kejriwal, shouldn’t you know that you are no longer an aam aadmi. Along with you, you now have supporters, camera crews, journalists, men, women, children….all trailing you. This is how you must have reached the Churchgate station to board the local train today. Imagine the heights of chaos if you had actually boarded the train with this convoy. Thank God! There was a special empty train waiting for you.

Kejriwal is on a three-day Maharashtra tour. Mumbai was his first stop and he visited various constituencies where AAP candidates are contesting from. A busy day indeed!

Someone else has also been equally busy – the Mumbai police – providing Kejriwal Z- category security. Like it or not Kejriwal, you are not an aam aadmi, you are a khas aadmi.

In another development, with Savita Bhatti (wife of late Jaspal Bhatti) quitting AAP, the Chandigarh seat is likely to go to Bollywood actress Gul Panag. And what a timing! Gul has just completed her Masters in Political Science. She has always been raising women issues and fighting for their causes. This move will give her a wider platform. She joined AAP a few months back.

Film actor Aamir Khan who has been urging for better voter turnout at a personal level may do it on behalf of the Election Commission (EC) if he becomes the EC’s national icon. With the glamour industry joining the election force, the General Election 2014 will indeed be filled with myriad colours.

Remember, yesterday Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had made a comparison between Modi and Hitler. An angry BJP responded saying that if Hitler had any descendants, they would be in Congress. Imagine, Manmohan Singh with a Hitler mustache or even better – Chidambaram with one. Politics definitely brings about humour even in anger. The BJP did not stop at this. It went on to say that if anyone behaved like Hitler, it was Indira Gandhi (Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother). We know what Congress is doing right now. Drafting a reply to this attack!

Meanwhile, BJP sitting MP from Varanasi – Murli Manohar Joshi – is adamant at not giving up his seat for Modi. Modi may now contest from Lucknow or Allahabad, if no one else is eyeing that seat.

While members in BJP are fighting for the seats, Congress faces a different dilemma. It is giving seats to the leaders, but they are reluctant to contest.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari has been offered the Ludhiana seat, which he is not too keen to take up. Finance minister P. Chidambaram has been offered Sivaganga, but he is dragging his feet on it and may like his son to contest from there. The list can go on – Sachin Pilot, Jayanthi Natarajan….

No wonder tainted leaders are being considered – former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, former Railway Minister Pawan Bansal, and mired in Common Wealth scam – Suresh Kalmadi. Hope they don’t refuse. Jab bura waqt aata hai… you never know.

The Congress is expected to release its second list tomorrow. In the list, the names that are likely to be featured are Union minister Kapil Sibal from the Chandni Chowk constituency, former Delhi Congress Chief Jai Prakash Agarwal from North East Delhi, party spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit from East Delhi and former Union Minister Ajay Maken from New Delhi. They will be contesting the same seats from where they had won the 2009 elections.

Meanwhile in Andhra Pradesh, erstwhile actor turned politician Chiranjeevi need not go very far for competition because it is right there at his house. His younger brother, Pawan Kalyan, who is also a famous Tollywood hero will be soon launching his own party. Chiranjeevi had founded Praja Rajyam Party, which later merged with Congress. In the forthcoming election, he is heading the Congress campaign committee for Seemandhra region. Wonder if his campaigning should begin from home itself!

These tamashas are bound to continue. That is what elections in India are all about. Stay tuned with us as we follow them closely.

Related Information

General Elections 2014

Election Results

West Bengal Election

West Bengal Election Results

Delhi Elections

Delhi Election Results