Aside from being one of Delhi's best-known businessmen and best-connected citizens, Lalit Suri is a man known for his flamboyant fleet of cars. This past week was one of wondrous journeys for him. He was in London, reputed to be his favourite city outside of Delhi, to receive the World Travel Market Global Award from the queen of Jordan. There was another prize back in Lucknow, however, that was giving him more reason to smile.

By the time he boarded the British Airways flight to Heathrow airport, Suri knew he had made it to the Rajya Sabha. The socialite hotel tycoon had reached the climax of his career as a political lobby manager. He had won a remarkably smooth, uncontested by-election in Uttar Pradesh for the seat T.N. Chaturvedi (BJP) vacated when he became governor of Karnataka.

"I am only the tourism industry's representative in the Rajya Sabha." LALIT SURI, chairman, Bharat Hotels

One of India's biggest hoteliers, with properties extending from Mumbai to Srinagar, Suri (right) was backed by all parties, from SP to BJP to BSP.

"Editors should be open about their political biases. Everybody has biases." SHAHID SIDDIQUI, editor, Nai Dunia

The Urdu journalist and social activist was elected as one of the Samajwadi Party's candidates. He was previously in the SFI and the Congress.

There was a time when businessmen merely funded aspiring MPs and journalists only wrote about them. Those times obviously belong to a political pre-history. Suri's election-as well as that of Shahid Siddiqui, editor-in-chief, Nai Dunia-was only fresh evidence of that (see box).

Actually, for all the grins they generated, Uttar Pradesh's Rajya Sabha elections were a narrow step away from a full-fledged political crisis. The BJP was defending three seats but, thanks to rebellion by 10 MLAs, was sure of only two. That's when the combined forces of Arjun Jaitley (BJP) and Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party) decided to sell the idea of independent candidate Suri. The political mainstream was worried by loose cannon Suresh Nanda, another Delhi-based businessman, who had declared his candidature for both a regular, six-year seat-he needed 37 votes from the state's MLAs to win one of the 10 seats on offer-as well as the separate by-election.

Aside from a prominent wig, Nanda wears the multiple hats of arms agent, son of Admiral S.M. Nanda, former navy chief, and father of Sanjeev Nanda, accused in the BMW homicide case that rocked Delhi in 1999. Backed by BJP rebels, Nanda stood in the way of what one observer described as the "national consensus behind Lalit Suri". In the six-year-term battle, he posed a threat to, particularly, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of the BJP and Akhilesh Das, yet another businessman, of the Congress.

The road hog proved a non-starter. Nanda was elbowed out of contention, literally, when he went to file his papers itself. There was a scuffle in the room, amid strange sounds, including, "I have been cheated ... I want my money back ... I have invested Rs 5 crore." Nanda was "persuaded" to tell the press he had withdrawn. The next day he told the Election Commission he was withdrawing his withdrawal but Nirvachan Sadan rejected his papers anyway. The Ghaziabad house he had cited as his residence turned out to be somebody else's address. Nanda's informal group of consultants flew-some to Monte Carlo and others, like BSP MLA Amarmani Tripathi, into the wilderness of the cow belt-leaving him high and dry; and Suri in the Rajya Sabha.

PRESS OF MPS ...
PRITISH NANDY Editor-cum-tycoon-cum- celebrity. Is also a Shiv Sena MP.	DINANATH MISHRA Old RSS and Press Club ties combine to make him a BJP MP.
BALBIR PUNJ Among the more public editor-MPs. Is head of the BJP's Intellectual Cell.	RAJIV SHUKLA Is Loktantrik Congress MP, when not TV host or cricket official.

What is it about the initials "MP" that businessmen are desperate for even a truncated 18-month term? While phone calls to Nanda went unanswered, he is said to have "approached" Suri and offered to retire from the by-election for "help" with one of the 10 regular seats.

Suri, 55, didn't need to play ball. He knew simply too many people to be alarmed. Close to the late Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi-though not, the grapevine insists, to Sonia-he counts Congressmen from N.D. Tiwari to Kamal Nath as buddies. Bal Thackeray is a confidant. Subramanian Swamy is a regular at his Intercontinental property in Delhi. Farooq Abdullah flew on his personal plane to Tirupati. Chandra Shekhar is a benefactor of sorts. It's less a roll-call of friends and more a potential national government.

Even so Suri, a successful participant in the hotel privatisation process, insists he will be the hospitality industry's MP. "I want to make India the world's number one tourism destination." For that noble aspiration his first priority is "to get into Parliament's consultative committee to the Tourism Ministry".

... AND BARONS TOO
R.N. DHOOT The Videocon Group tycoon won an RS term from Maharashtra in April.	VIJAY MALLYA The Independent found support from MLAs across all Karnataka parties.

On his part, Siddiqui, 50, boasts an equally colourful political pedigree. As a Delhi University leader of the Students Federation of India, he was imprisoned during the Emergency. Later he gravitated towards the Congress and, disillusioned with Sonia three years ago, entered Mulayam Singh Yadav's embrace. Are some of his fellow journalist MPs less than honest in their intentions? Pat comes the reply: "If it's wheeling and dealing you're talking about, there are enough editors who are not MPs but are still into it."

Squirms aside, the point is businessmen and journalists in the Rajya Sabha have had a fairly uninspiring existence. Most prefer to come in as Independents or after having negotiated a "single-window clearance" with a small party. Doyens K.K. Birla and M.S. Oberoi served multiple terms.

Arun Shourie (BJP) has made it to the Cabinet. Rajiv Shukla (Loktantrik Congress) gave at least one sharp pro-reforms speech but is still more tv star than parliamentarian. R.N. Dhoot's most noticed move as MP has been converting his Videocon Group's prized property on central Delhi's Kasturba Gandhi Marg into his official bungalow. Most barons look at the Rajya Sabha as a place to shape affluence into influence, economic clout into socio-political acceptability.

Some have to balance professional and political interests. Pritish Nandy (Shiv Sena) is one of the producers of Kaante, a film starring Sanjay Dutt. Angry at Dutt's "mafia links", the Sena has allegedly promised to release snakes in the cinema halls that screen Kaante. No doubt Nandy could do with the services of a snake-charmer. Alternatively, when Parliament meets on November 18, he could compare notes with Suri and Siddiqui on how to charm party bosses.