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STATES: ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
2001
Poll Diary
Mammoth Measures
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Mahanta on campaign trail
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Guwahati: When Assam Chief Minister and
AGP chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta went to file his nomination in Guwahati
on April 21, little did he know that he and his party would be hit by
an elephantine problem. And it was not because Mahanta had sour-sweet
feelings at having to fight his one-time comrade-in-arms Atul Bora for
the prestigious Dispur seat. Fact was the elephant is the AGP's election
symbol and Mahanta's cavalcade to the returning officer's office was being
led by three jumbos, all over 8 ft in height and gaily decorated with
AGP flags. The party found nothing wrong in employing live symbols.
However, the Election Commission and animal rights
activists were not amused. "We shall look into the matter. Using
animals for electoral purposes can amount to violation
of the code of conduct," says Bhaskar Mushahary, Assam's chief electoral
officer. Sangeeta Goswami of the People for Animals, a Guwahati-based
NGO, says the AGP was warned by the Union Environment & Forest Ministry
during the previous elections not to use elephants for poll purposes.
"Elephants which have soft paws suffer tremendous pain if made to
walk on metalled roads. It is cruel," says Goswami. Violating elephants'
rights is the last thing the AGP can afford on poll eve.
It's New Year Still
Chennai: The EC may have ordered TV networks
to refrain from playing politics, but the two channels belonging to the
main contenders-Sun TV aligned with the DMK and Jaya TV owned by Jayalalitha-have
got around the diktat. Though Tamil New Year's day was on April 14, they
continue to send out political messages in the garb of New Year greetings.
The Enemy's Enemy
 Thiruvananthapuram:
Both the BJP and the Congress in Kerala reject all suggestions of
a mahajot, but at least in three constituencies it is too obvious to be
missed. The BJP has not fielded a candidate in Cherthala, where the Congress
candidate is the chief ministerial aspirant A.K. Antony. In Palai again,
the BJP
is conspicuous by its absence where the Congress-led UDF candidate is
K.M. Mani, said to be close to the saffron party. But the place where
the grand anti-communist alliance is in full cry is Thiruvananthapuram
West, where expelled CPI(M) dissident M.V. Raghavan is the UDF candidate.
Raghavan has the backing of all non-communist parties and a rainbow coalition
that includes not just the BJP and the Muslim League but also the militant
Progressive Democratic Front led by Abdul Nasser Madani.
Star Effects
 Chennai:
Tamil superstar Rajnikant played no mean role in the rout of the AIADMK
and the spectacular performance of the DMK in the 1996 assembly polls.
This time however, he has opted to stay out, despite pleas from DMK bigwigs.
But party cadres know how to milk Rajnikant's popularity for all that
it is worth. They have propped up the star's last silver screen character
in Padaiyappa, a movie about an arrogant woman. No prizes for guessing
who the woman is. DMK campaigners and party workers in several constituencies
go around enacting scenes from the movie, with a Rajnikant lookalike taking
on Jayalalitha.
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