Two Winners And A Photo Finish
According to the INDIA TODAY-ORG-MARG opinion poll, there will be clear winners in two states, but a tight finish in a third.

The Last Rampage
To offset
J. Jayalalitha's slight edge, a pugnacious M. Karunanidhi gives it his all in what is his final electoral campaign.

The Sixth Sense
A mercurial Mamata Banerjee vs a dependable Buddhadev Bhattacharya. The mismatch leaves the Left Front with a premonition of victory.

Secular Stake
Even as the Church makes a blatant move to play a more political role in the state, the CPI(M) nominates a priest to woo minorities.

One Man Barmy
India's apex social sciences facilitating body is rocked by civil war: the chairman says he is being opposed by both RSS ideologues and leftist academics.

Changing Order
An ageing profile and a frustrated officer corps leads the force to consider VRS and restructuring.

Liquid Asset
The Rs 700-crore industry has attracted many players. Now, purity will decide who stays in business.

Board Of No Control
Tax authorities say the BCCI spends more money on meetings than on matches.

COVER STORY: ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2001

West Bengal
The Sixth Sense

The mismatch between Buddha's logic and Mamata's rhetoric leaves the LF with a premonition of victory again

By Sumit Mitra

Buddha, or Mamata/Who has kshamata (power)?" As smart hoardings on Kolkata streets pose the query, the 56-year-old chief minister seems to close the gap with his rival every day of the campaign's scorching 12-hour, four-meeting schedule. The gap was formidable when the campaign began; Mamata was far ahead. Now, as her lead shrinks, she is working harder, often addressing six or seven rallies a day. She draws her fan crowds of both suburban and hicktown lads-as opposed to the organised red-flag wielding poker-faced leftist rallyists-who greet their didi's punch lines with thunderous applause.

Mamata Banerjee is a pop diva to her audience. But Buddhadev Bhattacharya is no glum-faced commissar either. Mamata, in every speech, must mention Basu and Buddhadev at least a dozen times. But Bhattacharya makes it a point not to name Mamata-"she's a woman and I have nothing personal against her." On a tour of his constituency of Jadavpur, the chief minister takes an unscheduled break to play cricket with mohalla boys-a valuable photo-op as the next morning's newspapers prove. In his speeches in the urban areas, he dwells on themes that will touch a chord with the listeners-like information technology, the certificate to the state by Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, and the promise of a golden future for the Bengali "medha" (talent). In the rural areas, Bhattacharya is an altered persona, spewing fire at every "demon" unleashed by the A.B.Vajpayee-led Government's reforms-be it globalisation of trade or privatisation of the state-owned enterprises. "They are allowing import of tea. What will happen to Darjeeling? They are bringing in foreign silk. What will happen to the silk industry of Murshidabad? They are closing down 54 coal mines in the state. What will happen to over one lakh families in Asansol and Ranigunj?" At Bongaon, a town 80 km east of Kolkata, close to the Bangladesh border, Haripada Shau, who came to attend Bhattacharya's meeting and sell a few portraits of Jyoti Basu on the side at Rs 10 apiece, observed: "The new chief minister makes you think." Obviously the predecessor doesn't. Shau could not sell even one copy of his portrait.

However, in the Buddha-Mamata race, campaign rhetoric is not the sole deciding factor. In a state where the ruling Left Front is notorious for using the police to turn the election process into a farce, particularly in the rural constituencies (216 among 294), the ace up Bhattacharya's sleeve is his experience as minister for home (police) since 1996. Till the early 1990s, when the incumbency fatigue did not show on the government, the collusion with the police was limited to its unionised ranks. 1996 was the turning point, with the Left Front's seats coming down to 203 from 245 in 1991. Since then, Bhattacharya has built his personal network with the top brass of the state police, bringing controversial IPS officers to key positions and pushing the upright ones to insignificant file-pushing jobs. In the May 10 elections, it is the "Buddha group" of police officers, mostly of inspector-general rank (including one of the chief minister's relatives), who hold the key to poll-day manipulations. The old guard of the Left Front has a growing admiration for Bhattacharya not just because he talks of it and mollycoddles businessmen in an un-Marxist fashion but due to his skill at using the bureaucracy for the Front's electoral purposes. Forward Bloc supremo Ashok Ghosh says, "Now I feel Buddhadev should have been given the post at least a year ago."

Mamata is mercurial. Bhattacharya is cool. Mamata is casual about alliances, shifting from the Congress to the BJP, and then back to the Congress. Bhattacharya left the Cabinet once but never the party. Mamata threw away the advantage of having the might of the Central Government on her side in the state election that can make or break her. Bhattacharya has put to use every bit of his influence in the crucial Home Department. In the last lap of the race, therefore, there is every chance that the head will brush past the heart.

MetroScape

Bond Free
The Savoy in Mussoorie must be the only hotel, apart from the Raffles in Singapore, to have a thing about writers. So, it was quite kismet when publisher Pramod Kapoor of Roli Books and author Namita Gokhale, who has an imprint with him, hosted the Ruskin Bond Festschrift—a Writers' Retreat in honour of that gentle Indian Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond.
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Looking Glass

Delhi Cinema:
Canadian film festival

Delhi Art Fest:
Documenta

Bangalore Play:
Little Theatre