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STATES: ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
2001
Poll Diary
A Rhyme For A Reason
Kolkata: Home grown "poets"
are in great demand at election time in West Bengal to spin catchy lines
for slogans, banners and graffiti. And Mamata Banerjee, who claims that
catchlines roll off her tongue, leads the pack. Just weeks before the
1999 Lok Sabha polls, she released a book of her best verbal punches.
It became an instant hit. For the assembly polls next month, the "poets"
in various political parties are stepping up their campaign. Last week,
two limerick writers, both CPI(M) supporters, released an audio cassette
of their verses set to music. This week, Trinamool Congress workers plan
to print and sell 10,000 pamphlets on the Left's misrule. "You can
say a lot of things through verse that would otherwise be libellous,"
says Ramola Chakraborty, wife of state Transport Minister Subhash Chakravarty.
She should know. She has been penning rhymes for the Left Front since
1971 and now only thinks in verse. There are apolitical poet-singers too.
Dilip Chatterjee, for example. The retired state transport corporation
employee, who sings parodies to the tune of Hemanta Mukherjee hits, has
been approached by at least two political parties, but he is holding out
for a truly apolitical forum. So whenever he gets an audience, he breaks
into song: "No more politics for us/ it's all about a chair-what's
the fuss?/But watching it fills us with disgust." That sounds like
a winning line.
Joint Misadventure
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Sonia Gandhi with
J. Jayalalitha |
Chennai: Sonia Gandhi is not one to forget
easily. At least, not the insult that J. Jayalalitha dished out during
the previous elections. In the Villupuram constituency, the two of them
were supposed to campaign together and Sonia had even reached the venue,
only to learn that the imperious lady from Poes Garden had suddenly decided
she was not going to campaign jointly with the Congress president. That
should explain why the news from the headquarters of the AIADMK-led front
sent shivers down the spines of Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu. "Jayalalitha,
Sonia Gandhi and G.K. Moopanar would conduct joint campaigns for the coming
assembly polls", the announcement said. To ensure that past mistakes
are not repeated, representatives of all three parties will work out a
detailed programme.
All In The Family
 Chennai:
Here's proof, if indeed it were needed, that there's none shrewder than
J. Jayalalitha. She wanted to deny a ticket to Tamaraikani, the sitting
MLA from Srivilliputhur. But how to do it without ruffling the old faithful's
feathers? She gave the seat to his son Inba Thamizhan. The father accused
Jayalalitha of trying to "break my family". But the son came
to the lady's rescue. "He should not say that. It is because of her
that we are where we are."
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