By IANS,
New Delhi : The sandesh and rosogolla are usually brown or white in colour. But India’s colourful election exercise seems to be rubbing off on West Bengal’s famed sweets too.
A sweetmeat shop in Howrah district has started making green and orange coloured sweets – the colours of the Congress and the Trinamool Congress.
“We thought of doing something different for the upcoming polls and then decided to make sweets in party colours,” shop-owner Keshto Haldar said.
Enthusiastic workers of the two parties are thronging the shop in large numbers to have their share of colourful sweets after a hard day’s work.
“It feels great to have sweets made in the colours of our party,” said a Congress party worker, gorging down some coloured rosogollas.
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Congress’ song and dance turns into no show
They were to dance to the Congress poll song based on “Jai Ho” at a press meet here Wednesday, but six students ended up shaking a leg to the original Oscar winning film song.
The students were roped in by the Delhi Congress’ publicity in-charge to dance with props like the party’s flag.
But instead of the party’s song that speaks of its growth, achievements and leadership, the confused, ill-coordinated students waved their flags and shook a leg to the original soundtrack, which is actually a love song.
“I was not given the party’s track, so at the last minute we used the film version,” a party worker who was in charge of the function said.
The students, who were dancing for free, couldn’t quite match the film song’s romantic mood, and the show ended up a mess.
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Chidambaram to woo Delhi’s south Indians?
He is from southern India and a powerful figure at that. So, who better than Home Minister P. Chidambaram to woo voters from down south who reside in Delhi?
Sandeep Dikshit, the MP from East Delhi and son of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, has requested Chidambaram to campaign particularly in Mayur Vihar in a bid to attract the large number of south Indians residing there.
Speaking at a press meet Wednesday, Dikshit said that voters in the Mayur Vihar area are smitten by Chidambaram’s charm. He has also requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to campaign in the constituency.
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Working ‘magic’ on voters
All political parties are trying to weave their charm on voters, but one candidate in Chhattisgarh has gone a step further.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) state president Vishnudeo Sai, who is contesting from Raigarh, has hired several local magicians to stage shows on the streets to attract voters.
The magicians, eight of them, are holding at least five-six shows daily and concluding them with an appeal to people to vote for the BJP candidate.
Sai is the sitting MP from the constituency but when he tried to test his mettle in the assembly polls in November, he lost. Maybe, the magic show will do the trick for him?
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Chandy Oommen campaigns for Oommen Chandy
Chandy Oommen, a law student in Delhi, has taken time off from his studies to join his father and Leader of Opposition in the Kerala assembly Oommen Chandy, to campaign for Congress-led United Democratic Front candidates.
Travelling with his father, Chandy Oommen, however, says a polite no to those who invite him to sit on the dais.
“Please, I like to be with the people and I feel happy with that,” he said to local leaders who invited him to join his father on stage.
“From April 5, I will be full-time with our candidate Satheeshan Pacheni at the Palakkad seat. A victory for the Congress party is the need of the hour,” he said.