Once a royal, always a royal. The incumbent chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, is a descendent of the Scindia royal family. But to think that this is the only reason she is popularly known as rani or queen would not be quite accurate. Raje is famous — or should one say infamous? — for her royal temperament. The royal disposition of the queen who reigns supreme in the desert state was on display recently at the release of the manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Any difficult question directed towards her by the journalists in attendance was deflected towards the Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley, who was rushed to Rajasthan specifically for his ability to manage the media.
The queen clearly underestimated the persistence of scribes. Raje could not quite manage to sidestep the question from one reporter who enquired about her notorious arrogance. He was immediately given the royal treatment. “That is a very personal question. I’m not going to answer,” she snapped at him. Perhaps she did answer the reporter, after all. Many BJP leaders in the state feel that if the party gets a severe drubbing in Rajasthan it would be due to Raje’s arrogance. One wonders how the queen would feel about her royal temper if she knew it posed the risk of toppling her crown.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore PTI
Rishi Kapoor Telegraph picture
Counting chickens
While Rajasthan prepares to go to war, the battle is over in Madhya Pradesh. The air is now rife with speculations about the results. Interestingly, both sides are confident about emerging victorious. The Congress as well as the BJP insist that their sources assure them of netting at least 125 of the 230 assembly seats in the state. Given that the assembly elections are being considered the semi-finals before the final battle of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the top bosses in Delhi are keeping a close eye on matters. No sooner had voting concluded than the state BJP president, Rakesh Singh, rushed to Jaipur to brief the party chief, Amit Shah. On the other hand, Kamal Nath, the veteran Congressman in charge of Madhya Pradesh, hurried to Delhi to call on Rahul Gandhi.
Other warriors from the two camps — perhaps secure with the assurance of victory — took a much needed break. The incumbent CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, headed for Bhopal’s Indian Coffee House to relish some filter coffee, and polish off idlis and dosas. A while later, the former CM from the Congress camp, Digvijaya Singh, too, was spotted at the same joint. But can there be a moment of rest till the results are out? Singh was seen holding court with many journos, calculating — literally on his fingertips — a seat-wise break-up of the results. Wise warriors would know to hold their horses. Only December 11 will decide the fate of the two sides.
Foul is not fair
Not everybody in the Congress is as relaxed though. A section of the Grand Old Party is deeply worried about the manipulation of EVMs. Many candidates deployed teams to guard strong rooms in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Apprehension is particularly high in Chhattisgarh after a rather mysterious incident. The tehsildar in Dhamtari was allowed to enter the strong room for inspection but he went in with three more persons who carried laptops and mobile phones with them. The Congress complained and the tehsildar was immediately suspended. In Baloda Bazar, too, the Congress has demanded the removal of the district collector and superintendent of police after noticing suspicious movements around the strong room.
In Madhya Pradesh, a polling team in Shujalpur constituency stayed in a hotel owned by a BJP leader, violating the mandatory provision to stay in the polling booth the night before voting. The polling team ran away from the hotel when a TV crew reached there. The head of the team was suspended. Congress leaders are more alert this time. Even the apparently calm Digvijaya Singh asked booth agents to note down the number of every EVM replaced owing to a snag. Congress workers have also been trained to catch irregularities during counting and tabulation.
Precaution is better than cure, they say.
Battle stations
Given the dissatisfaction with the royal treatment Vasundhara Raje has been meting out, it is hardly surprising that the BJP has been pressing into action all available resources to campaign in the state. The Union minister for information and broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who hails from Rajasthan, was asked by the party to stay back in the state to campaign for it. Now, Rathore, also the Union minister for sports, may not have lost any of his agility from his days as an athlete but even he does not know the acrobatics required to be in two places at once. As a result, Rathore could not be at the closing ceremony of the 49th edition of the International Film Festival of India in Goa.
The occasion in Taleigao was instead graced by Union ministers, KJ Alphons and Shripad Naik. Also present were the governors of Goa and Punjab, Mridula Sinha and VP Singh Badnore, respectively, and state minister for town and country planning, Vijay Sardesai. The BJP member of parliament, Manoj Tiwari, too, shared stage with the others. The BJP’s unwillingness to spare Rathore even for a day tells a story. Is all, then, not well with the saffron camp in Rajasthan?
Footnote
Building bridges is no mean feat — as Calcuttans and Navjot Singh Sidhu well know. But Bollywood seems to be more adept at doing so than politicians. The Kapoor haveli in Peshawar is all set to be turned into a museum. This decision was taken by the Pakistan government in response to a request by the actor, Rishi Kapoor. The Kapoor haveli in Qissa Khwani Bazaar was built by Basheswarnath Kapoor, the father of the Bollywood icon, Prithviraj Kapoor. This is the house where “the greatest showman of Hindi cinema”, Raj Kapoor, was born in 1924.
