February 23, 1998

Ila Pant
BJP

Nainital Uttar Pradesh
Electorate: 13.4 lakh
Main Rival: N.D. Tiwari (Congress)

Ila Pant likes to punctuate her crisp election speeches by eyeballing the crowd and intoning: "I know you've made up your minds, it's very clear." Yet, little about the 60-year-old BJP candidate from Nainital herself matches that statement. As she moves about in her silk saris, fashionable sunglasses and black tweed overcoat, it becomes increasingly clear that she hasn't made up her mind on what to say. Her election speeches -- shorn of local issues and limited mostly to "A vote for me is a vote for Vajpayee" -- lack originality.

So what has made this memsahab chuck up her high heels for bulky gym shoes? Simply the Pant name (Govind Ballabh Pant, her father-in-law and K.C. Pant, her husband, are household names here). As she herself admits, "I was told only on January 21 that I should contest. There was little time but I decided to continue the tradition of my family."

Her rival is Congress heavyweight N.D. Tiwari and her camp is fixated by him. Her team includes Balraj Passi, who is displayed as the one who beat Tiwari in1991. It also has Samarpal Singh, former MLA and long-time confidant of Tiwari, who tells crowds how dishonest Tiwari is. Finally, her supporters point out that Tiwari was an MLA from one of the Nainital assembly constituents when K.C. Pant was the MP -- and therefore clearly the more senior leader. "Doesn't he have any shame fighting against his senior's wife?" Twisted logic. But then in an election, much like the movies, anything goes.

-- Vijay Jung Thapa

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