A DELUGE OF POLITICAL TEARSPolitics can be like onions: layers within layers, and plenty tears. For one reason or the other, everyone in Rajasthan is sobbing on stage. The latest to wax lachrymose is Ravi Nayyar, owner of Roshan Dhaba in Jaipur’s Raja Park. Famous for its non-vegetarian delicacies for decades, the dhaba suddenly stopped serving those and turned all satvik as Nayyar angled for a BJP ticket. For his penance, he was rewarded with a boon: the Adarsh Nagar seat. That’s when he decided to really sink his teeth into the role. Two cows and a calf appeared on the scene, posthumously. At a presser, Nayyar boohooed as he accused Rafeek Khan, his opponent and sitting Congress MLA, of culpable bovicide. “Why was I not shot instead?” he asked dramatically, through tears. Khan dismissed that as a cheap stunt and called himself the real gau rakshak, citing how he had got cows freed from a municipality squad. Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas weighed in, accusing the BJP of staging its old street theatre and advised Hindus to keep their cattle and temples locked at night till voting day.It’s Archana Sharma of the Congress who launched a thousand teardrops when she reminded her Malviya Nagar electorate how she has lost twice, the last time by a mere 2,000 votes, and this one could be her life’s.... (lost in tears). Her party mate Pushpendra Bhardwaj from Sanganer sobbed about how politics keeps him away from his seven-year-old daughter for days. The BJP’s Priyanka Chaudhary (Barmer) and Congressmen Bharosi Lal Jatav (Hindon) and Khiradi Lal Bairwa (Baseri) cried publicly for being denied tickets. In a different class is Om Prakash Hudla, sitting independent MLA who has got a Congress ticket from Mahuwa. His grief: an ED raid.THE OTHER TURNOUT.preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;} (Illustration: Siddhant Jumde) 100+: The number of nominations in three of Telangana’s 119 constituencies (though some of the ‘candidates’ in these seats have since been persuaded to drop out)101: Were in the fray in Kamareddy, where KCR is up against not just Congress’s Revanth Reddy but scores of angry jobless youth154: Nominations in Gajwel, KCR’s other seat, of the 200+ protest candidatesJAT vs JATNIPatriarchy still flows from the muzzle of a hookah, when it comes to Jats. In Rajasthan, Divya Maderna, 39, sitting Congr­ess MLA and Osian hopeful, has been getting it from maverick MP Hanuman Beniwal, founder of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. Why does she not get married, he intoned in avuncular fashion, and said only that would help calm her down. He even promised to get her married for the sake of the community. The twist of the knife? Allusions to the infamous CD of her late father, ex-minister Mahipal Maderna, who spent a decade in jail in the Bhanwari Devi murder case. Divya, no shrinking violet, gives it right back. For all that, Beniwal has fielded no one against her.GET TICKLED PINK (Illustration: Siddhant Jumde) Most people with drive, who look at cars as a means of transport from a lesser station in life to a greater one, go after muscular off-roaders with big fat wheels or sleek sedans. But in Telangana, the quest for upwardly mobility forces BRS candidates to go for retro chic—in the familiar, bulbous shape of an Ambass­ador car. Can’t be helped. It’s a lookalike of the party poll symbol. But where to get your hands on this once-ubiquitous ‘drawing room on wheels’? The more resourceful ones, like A. Indrakaran Reddy (Nirmal) and Kova Laxmi (Asifabad), are importing the cars from Maharashtra. For a flourish, they get the old jalopy painted in the party colour—bright pink, if you please. Embossed portraits of the candidates and, of course, of KCR add to the subtlety.RAJA BETAS (Illustration: Siddhant Jumde) The Pandavas? Well, not quite...but five sons of former CMs are in the fight in Madhya Pradesh. Each with interesting links to the other, political and personal. Ajay Singh, son of Arjun Singh, is married to the first cousin of Jai Vardhan Singh, son of Digvijaya Singh. Both Ajay and Jai are Congress candidates. Om Prakash Saklecha, scion of the ’70s-vintage CM Virendra Kumar Saklecha, has a BJP ticket to ride. So has Dhruv Narayan Singh, the progeny of the more deeply sepia-tinted Govind Narayan Singh, a Congress émigré who got to be a coalition government’s CM in the ’60s, with the Jan Sanghi Saklecha as his deputy. Deepak Joshi, the ex-MLA and minister whose saffron pedigree also flows from Eastmancolor-era dad Kailash Joshi, is mounted on a Congress steed this time. This is not counting Surendra Patwa, ‘adopted son’ of his issue-less uncle Sunderlal Patwa and in the fray from old haunt Bhojpur.- EndsPublished By: Aditya Mohan WigPublished On: Nov 17, 2023Must Watch
