Delhi: Money Logic

For the irrepressible Mani Shankar Aiyar, these are indeed bad times. After spending a year and a half on the sidelines, he had hoped to get back into Parliament courtesy an alliance with Jayalalitha. But given party chief Sitaram Kesri's stubbornness, Aiyar's plans seemed to have gone haywire. Then came a ray of hope from Mamata Banerjee, the stormy petrel of the Congress, who sounded out Aiyar for the safe Calcutta North-west seat. But for a small hitch, the diplomat turned politician-columnist would have had no problems taking on the Marxists, or "Grouchoes" in Manispeak. The seat has a sizeable BJP vote bank and if the proposed Mamata's Trinamool Congress-BJP alliance comes through, it could spell trouble for him. But the unputdownable Aiyar has already begun the spadework. He has been telling friends that though he may have been critical of the BJP, he never had "anything against Vajpayeeji". Now that's what you call electoral diplomacy.

Bhubaneswar: Friend in Need

The BJP's brainstorming session was on in Bhubaneswar, and who should walk in but the rival Congress MP from Cuttack, Anadi Charan Sahu. The surprise visit caused initial flutters, but Sahu, cellphone in hand, was politely led to the man he wanted to see -- Pramod Mahajan, the BJP top brass entrusted with the task of winning friends and allies for the party. Their hour-long, closed-door meeting has led to considerable speculation. But Sahu's fate will depend on the seat-sharing being worked out between the BJP and Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD). If the BJP manages to convince the BJD of its claim to the Cuttack seat, then in all likelihood Sahu will be its candidate.

Chandigarh: Election Homework

With the Election Commission's model code of conduct playing spoilsport, there was nothing official about Prime Minister I.K. Gujral's pre-poll exploratory visit to Punjab. Nevertheless, the "son of the soil" did manage a fair amount of publicity. And in the end, it turned out to be a grand pr exercise with newspaper editors in Jalandhar -- the constituency Gujral is keen on contesting from -- and Chandigarh. Apparently, the groundwork for wooing the local media was done by a Gujral confidant. So, while the visit to The Tribune's office in Chandigarh was a "private interaction", in Jalandhar it was breakfast diplomacy with the families of editors of two widely-circulated vernacular newspapers. Clearly, Gujral has done the spadework for what every politician desperately needs during elections -- a positive press.

Patna: One-track Agenda

For caretaker Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, come elections and all trains lead to Bihar. To be precise, Hajipur, his pocketborough near Patna, which is now under threat, thanks to a vengeful former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. So, regardless of the Election Commission's (EC) directive, Paswan is on an inauguration spree these days -- a railway cardiac hospital, sports stadium and survey work for new tracks even as the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal sent desperate fax messages to the EC to prevent him from doing so. But Paswan, who has already made little-known Hajipur a zonal railway headquarter, says he has ensured massive expansion work in the area even if he ceases to be the railway minister after the elections. A case of the runaway train, as they say.

Hyderabad: Speech Slip

Ever since the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu seems to have developed a penchant for making speeches -- as if the party's fortunes depended on it. In the process, he not only repeats himself but commits some hilarious gaffes. "Lay off your families and work hard for the party," was his usual call to TDP activists. But when he added "make alternative arrangements at home", it evoked guffaws. "I did not mean what you think," he clarified hastily, and to give a personal touch, said that he didn't even know how his son was faring at school. While party cadres treat Naidu's poll hype as a joke, it should be discomforting for son Lokesh, now in Class X. While Naidu Jr is consistent at school, it seems like a tough campaign ahead for papa.

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