By IANS,
New Delhi : His family roots may lie in Punjab but that doesn’t seem like enough reason for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get interested in the state’s politics.
His personal visit to the Sikh holy city of Amritsar Monday and Tuesday was more of a pilgrimage for thanksgiving for his successful heart surgery in January and speedy recovery.
The prime minister kept his visit low profile even though tight security measures were in place and the Chief Minister and veteran Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal turned up to receive him.
But the prime minister did not use the trip to kick-off the Congress poll campaign in the state. As in past, there have been demands that he should contest the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar. But he has managed to stay away this time too.
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Now, a biker gang for campaigning
“Biker gangs” usually make headlines for their criminal activities. However, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has formed one such band of boys for entirely different reasons.
The party, which has the bicycle as its symbol, wants this biker gang to woo the youth.
“The all-male team has been entrusted with the task of campaigning for Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. At present, it has nearly 20 members. All are in the age group of 18-20 years,” the party’s state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.
The “gang” has already started its campaign and will visit all the 80 constituencies on bicycles and interact with the youth, he said.
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Riding a horse to file his papers
Perhaps he is hoping for a galloping win. Manish Kunjam, the Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate from Maoist-insurgency hit Bastar in Chhattisgarh, rode a horse to file his nomination papers!
By the time he reached the office of the district returning officer at Jagdalpur town, an impressive procession was following him.
Kunjam, a former legislator from the Kota assembly seat, has his task cut out – to stop Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Baliram Kashyap from getting elected from there for the fifth time in a row.
Who trots ahead, time will tell.
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‘Rock On’ tune yet to rock voters
The last day for voter registration is hardly a week away, but the office of the chief electoral officer of Delhi says its much awaited tune – from the film “Rock On!” – to woo the electorate is still being worked on.
The song, “Socha Nahin to Socho Abhi (If you have not thought about it, think about it now)”, was to be used to make people vote. But even as March 31 is the last day of voter registration, an official said they were yet to go public.
The reason is the Congress party is already using another popular film song, “Jai Ho”, for its campaign. “We don’t want to confuse people. We will run our campaign later,” the official said.
Hope later won’t be a little too late.