Poll Gossip

[praveen187]

The elections are not done and dusted yet but the police are raring to go with orders of new armoured vehicles for the next chief minister. They are planning to place an order for a new convoy to roll out the day the new incumbent takes office. Apparently Chandrababu Naidu likes Ambassadors rather than the Safaris he uses presently as leader of the opposition. In case Chiranjeevi is returned, the police think he may prefer Mercs nothing less. Why place the order so early? Because if you waited until the last vote is counted, there wouldn't be enough time for the vehicles to be armor-plated and fitted up for the rigours of office. So they are planning to go ahead and order Scorpios. That's the choice of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy at present. So you know who the police think will win this election.l 

***

The TDP, Congress and Praja Rajyam are running neck and neck as far as election code violations are concerned. The TDP has earned 554 code violation notices from the Election Commission, followed by the Congress with 551 and the Praja Rajyam with 532. The TRS has earned 142, BJP 30, CPI 22 and CPM 10. Lok Satta has six notices to its name. Know who’s the best behaved party? MIM with 3.

***

Wait, it's not yet time for the Praja Rajyam to board the train.  An unknown party has gone to the Supreme Court challenging the allotment of the locomotive symbol to Chiranjeevi's party. Apparently the Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party contested the UP polls in 2007 with that symbol. So why can't the symbol be given to Praja Rajyam in Andhra Pradesh. There are regional parties such as the Samajwadi Party and the TDP which have the same symbol. The thing is, RKSP national president Gopal Rai explained, the party is contesting more than 100 seats in J&K, Delhi, Maharashtra, Jharkhan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, UP and MP. And in AP? It is contesting 210 Assembly seats.

***

The opposition to Congress candidate for Vijayawada West, Mallika Begum, is coming from unexpected quarters: from the clergy of the local Jamia Masjid. Mufti Abdul Kadir has said the Quran does not allow women to contest elections. This has received the enthusiastic assent of former MLA Jaleel Khan, a ticket aspirant himself. Muslim women, however, can vote, he said.

1 April 2009

Where in the world is Urvashi Sarada? Little has been heard of her since her entry into the Congress two months ago. The award-winning actress has been roped in to canvass for the party in Kerala, where name still makes heads turn. AT the peak of her career, Sarada was as popular in Kerala as in her native state of Andhra Pradesh. The heroine of Adoor Gopalakrishhnan’s Ellipathayam will canvass for Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram. Other campaign stops include Tamil Nadu and Karanataka.

***

Pawan Kalyan has written to intelligence chief K Aravinda Rao asking for security protection from “my huge fan following”. Police have taken no action yet but they are incline not to. Considering that 200 people turned up for the Che Guevara fan’s helihop in Prakasam district over the weekend, they think the “huge fan following” may not justify sretching security resources. Some cops think the star is a good enough gun slinger to take care of himself.

***

Rebel Star Krishnam Raju hails from the same village of Mogalturu as Mega Star Chiranjeevi. And now they are in the same party. Krishnam Raju wants to contest the election from Kakinada LS but the party is keen to push him to Rajahmundry, where the TDP has fielded Murali Mohan, another star of yesteryears. Rajahmundry is the bastion of Undavalli Arunkumar of the Congress, and the latter is not going give it up without a fight. It remains to be seen if Chiranjeevi will defer to the senior star's wishes and gives him the seat of his choice or push into a tough tussle in Rajahmundry.

***

The Election Commission has negatived a clever move by liquor dealers to have their cake and eat it too. As everyone knows, the election season is boom time for liquor dealers. No election can be fought without quenching the thirst of rented crowds and voters. These liquor purchases are made in bulk rather than over the counter. In a move to double their whammy, liquor deaders made a representation to the Election Commission, offering to vlountarily down their shutters during the campaign, provided their licence fee was returned. Chief electoral officer I V Subba Rao did a quick calculation and found that it would work out to a cool Rs 600 crore. He said no. The very Gandhian liquor lobby was disappointed but then there are others ways of furthering the ideals of prohibition.

***

So why is the Praja Rajyam vying with the TRS to nominate nonentities? If there is madness to KCR's method, there is a method to Chiranjeevi's madness. See, Praja Rajyam has sold to itself the grand theory that social groups in the middle of the spectrum are ready to coalesce together. So its lists must include names from the middle of the social spectrum. But there is still the matter of winning the election with winnable candidates. So the party's way out of these two sometimes conflicting objectives is to wait until the two biggies, Congress and the TDP, play their cards and then stuff its list own with subaltern candidates wherever there is a heavyweight from the Congress or TDP in the fray. That boosts the number of weaker sections and minorities in its list, scores a propaganda point and then leaves the winnable seats to winnable candidates. Cool.

***

However, not many of the rejected candidates in Praja Rajyam see the method in its madness. They think the party is under an evil spell which is impelling it to nominate kamikaze candidates. One disappointed aspirant from Munugode in Nalgonda district marched with a retinue of sorcerers to the Praja Rajyam office in Hyderabad and broke a pumpkin at the gate. Maybe now sense will dawn on the leadership.

***

It has by now become fabled that there is no rebel trouble in the Congress as is rabid in the TDP, TRS and Praja Rajyam. That's not true. The Congress has its rebels in at leatst 20 seats: Khammam, Bhongir, Bhimli, Balkonda, Boath, Parigi, Seri Lingampally to name a fvew. The Seri Lingampally rebel is P Janardhan Reddy's daughter, Vijaya Reddy. But she's only half a rebel, really. She's going to canvass for her brother and inheritor of the PJR legacy and for Jaipal Reddy the LS candidate for Chevella. 

***

If you took YSR, KCR and Chandrababu Naidu out of this election, the campaign would seem to be for the annual election of the Movie Artistes Association. There is a film star coming out of every wood work. But while they are enthusiastic spouters of hot air, they generally steer clear of criticising their brethren in the other parties. After all the votes are counted and done, they still have to see each others' faces. Therefore, there has always been an uneasy truce between Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna. But Balayya broke it on Tuesday when he dismissed the Praja Rajyam as a small party, not equal to the two biggies. Chiranjeevi was quick to come back on it on Wednesday, dismissing the Mahakutami as not a factor in the outcome at all.

31 March 2009

Will somebody give the Mahakutami a bigger sofa, please. Journalists covering the Chandrababu Naidu beat are wondering why the four leaders won't seat themselves in a more comfortable sofa. The one they use now is just too small for a foursome. You can see the discomfort of the leaders as they hunch their shoulders, place their hands on their knees and crouch into themselves. Coalition conclaves, as we saw during the United Front and NDA days are multi-hued affairs and you need a veritable round table to accommodate them all. The Mahakutami's crouching tigers only convey a picture of discomfort. What would they have done had Chiranjeevi, who is a bit big round the beam, agreed to be part of the coalition?

***

You are leadership material if you can keep a smile on your face when ten people are crowding the small podium on your campaign vehicle, the sun is beating down on you, someone in the crowd is abusing you and your aides are whispering into your ear – all at the same time. YSR and Chandrababu are too seasoned to be ruffled but Chiranjeevi is having to learn the skill. Touring East Godavari right now, he let his composure slip on a number of occasions. It was a bad for Chiru. He shouted at a gaggle of ticket seekers who banged on the door of his campaign bus demanding to be let in. Then some idiot threw a stone at him.  It missed. And then, when disappointed ticket seekers stopped the vehicle and shouted slogans, he shouted back that hire slogan shouters would cut no ice with him. When it got too much, he threw his spectacles and the mike and went to sulk in the back of the bus.

***

Dialogue baazi, as YSR will tell us, has no impact on the outcome of the election, but as it happens, what fun it is. Jr NTR has been the only campaigner to have been artful with dialogue delivery. His lines are long-winded and mythology derived, as they must be to impress any Telugu audience. They are meant to revive the NTR imagery, which they have succeeded. But does the boy come up with his own lines, extempore? Not really, behind his compelling delivery lies the deft hand of Telugu cinema's smartest writers, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna. Balayya's lines are also written by the same writer but they have less impact. That's the Jr NTR difference.

30 March 2009

Babai has been upstaged by Abbai, but things are not looking up for Balakrishna although the young brat is temporarily out of the campaign, being laid up in hospital. Balayya is right now out in the boondocks trying to whip up unenthusiastic crowds. The crowd at Satyaveedu was sparse and then rebellious ticket-seekers blocked his way at Puttur. Disappointed with the lukeward crowd, Samarasimham dropped his usual pantomime of thigh-slapping, moustache twirling. He did blow a conch, the sound of which was lost in the din and signed off with 'kanti chupu to  Congress nu antham cheddam.' The proceedings were listless. And then a former AIADMK minister lost his way and was admitted into the TDP.

*** 

As the leader with the longest nose in the election campaign, KCR can be expected to be economical with the truth. Samala Venkata Reddy, who faces an EC rap after his boast that he had bought the Secunderabad LS ticket for Rs 10 crore, said on Saturday that he had very good pink credentials, having fought for Telangana in the Ibrahimpatnam area for well over four years. Pity KCR hadn't compared notes with his Telangana warrior before speaking to the press on Sunday. Nodding his head vigorously, KCR said Venkata Reddy has been actively involved in the Telangana struggle for "over one year."

***

Why does KCR want the Kukatpally seat? Everyone knows it is dominated by what are called settlers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. Not less than 50% of the voters are settlers. What chance does the TRS stand here? Or even in any of the Assembly seats in Hyderabad? In 2004, in alliance with the Congress, the TRS managed to get the Secunderabad Assembly seat, which it promptly lost in the self-inflicted byelection last year. In those byelections, TRS came a cropper in Khairatabad and Musheerabad as well. So why is KCR fielding candidates in and around the city where the Telangana sentiment is weakest?

***

With nominations closing Monday, the TDP is scurrying around to field a credible candidate in Malkajgiri LS. The fray has several biggies: Devender Goud from PRP, Baddam Balreddy from BJP and Sarve Satyanarayana. TDP's difficulty comes its best seats being cornered by the TRS. With Kukatpally, Musheerabad, Seri Lingampally gone to the TRS, it is trying to relocate winnable candidate outside their area of influence. For instance, Jitender Reddy, now back in the TDP after a failed dalliance with the TRS, has been moved to Chevella LS, where Union minister Jaipal Reddy is in the fray in this Congress stronghold. Desperate measures.

29 March 2009

The day after NTR Junior was injured in an accident, doctors said there were no really serious injuries and that the star would be back in action in a week at most. That scenario changed a day later when doctors found that there were minor injuries to the spine, and that they would need to observe the star for a bit longer. Meanwhile, the police of Mothe, where the accident took place, drew a blank in determining who was driving the car when it overturned. Jr NTR is known to be a speed lover with a yen for fancy motorbikes.

***

While they are poles apart by nature and style, KCR and Chandrababu Naidu are alike in one respect: each has a finance wizard who helps him in ticket selection. Amid all the protests being witnessed outside Telangana Bhavan and Chandrababu Naidu's residence, one hears the name of two individuals: Santosh Kumar for KCR, and Sujana Chowdhary for Naidu. It is said that it was Santosh Kumar who swung the Secunderabad Lok Sabha ticket for Samala Venkat Reddy, a total unknown. Venkat Reddy brought grief upon himself by boasting that he had paid Rs 10 crore for the ticket on Saturday. He was soundly slapped around for his trouble by irate party workers who have worked for the TRS since its inception. Venkat Reddy received an invitation from the chief electoral officer for his cute revelation. Chowdhary on the other hand is present in the innermost council of the TDP that is doing the due diligence on TDP candidates. He works in the closest proximity of Naidu, putting in long hours into the night.

***

What’s the real reason for KCR’s decision to move to Mahbubnagar, leaving Medak to Vijayashanti? No one would believe that he did so under Vijayashanti’s bullying. So why did he move to Mahbubnagar, a district where the ‘Telangana sentiment’ is not strong? Insiders expect a last-minute surprise from the wily KCR. Congress sections won’t rule out a return to Karimnagar. KCR is a son-in-law of the district and it returned him to Parliament in 2004. It’s another matter the he kept returning to the voters there, resigning his seat twice and  winning by a handsome margin in the first bypoll and squeaking through in the second. Does KCR think he has outlived his welcome in Karimnagar?

***

Whispers at Chandrababu Naidu’s house indicated that he commissioned a quiet survey to assess the chances of the TDP should the deal with TRS not fructify. Not surprisingly, the survey is said to have forecast that the TDP would gain four or five more seats if it went without the baggage of the TRS than if it did. Telangana TDP leaders have seized the survey to badger Naidu to let the TRS go. But that’s a ploy to protect their seats which might be given to KCR’s party in the seat-sharing deal. As with most other questions in this poll, Naidu is caught in a cleft: he is damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.

***

It's not only Chiranjeevi's party that almost nominated a candidate who is still a member of the TDP. In fact, the TRS actually nominated the TDP's minority cell president. His name is Syed Yousuf Ali, nominated to the Zaheerabad seat. TRS Muslim leaders were aghast when they found his name in the list KCR relased.

***

The backlash from disappointed ticket hopefuls in the TRS is so severe that KCR has not been coming to Telangna Bhavan at all. His mode of releasing his party lists is to call up a few reporters himself and read it out to them. His is the only party whose lists have no seal of authority on them. Since the ‘official’ lists hardly look officials, it leaves every aspirant to claim that he’s been given the ticket. No one knows who will finally get the B form.