By IANS,
New Delhi : He has contested 25 elections in Orissa since 1957 and lost all of them. But that has not deterred a 73-year-old from trying his luck again in the Lok Sabha polls.
K. Shyam Babu Subudhi, a homeopath by profession, is back again as an independent contender from not one – but two – Lok Sabha constituencies, Aska and Berhampur.
His trying as an independent, and not as the candidate of a party, is aimed at giving a moral boost to common people who want to join politics, he says.
Subudhi has tried 15 times to the Lok Sabha and 10 times to the assembly, in the process crossing swords with heavyweights like late former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, late chief minister Biju Patnaik as well as his son and current Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
This time too he is facing a tough poll battle. But Subudhi said: “This time I hope to win.” Never mind that he has forfeited his deposits on all previous elections.
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Painters move on – from graffiti to ‘Stick No Bills’
Poll graffiti has been banned across India, thanks to the Election Commission. So wall artists in West Bengal thought they would be badly hurt – but there’s been a windfall.
The graffiti artists suddenly find themselves now busy scribbling ‘stick no bills’ slogans on the walls. Interestingly, they haven’t been hired by politicians but by residents.
“Most people don’t want to have their walls tainted with political slogans. We are earning Rs.30 for writing ‘Stick No Bills’ in Bengali and Rs.40 for writing the same in English on each,” painter Kushal Karmakar said.
“Earlier, the situation was just the opposite… we used to write slogans for political parties. That was quite time consuming and the earnings were fixed,” said Karmakar, who is quite happy writing for commoners.
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All new Congress website – minus Narasimha Rao
After the Bharatiya Janata Party, it’s the turn of the Congress party to revamp its website. The new site has a fresh look with more information.
On the home page, the tri-colour with a photo of Mahatma Gandhi shows up prominently. Below it are thumbnail pictures of the Congress trinity – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party president Sonia Gandhi, and her MP son Rahul Gandhi – along the slogan ‘Aam Aadmi ke Badhte Kadam, Har Kadam par Bharat Buland’.
But while the site carries the photos of all Congress stalwarts right from Jawaharlal Nehru, there is no trace of the late P.V. Narasimha Rao, who was prime minister in 1991-96.
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Candidates go for `auspicious’ dates
Many candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress in Chhattisgarh have ignored the advice of their parties about the dates of filing nomination papers. They’d rather settle for ‘auspicious’ timings!
In Chhattisgarh, filing of nominations began March 23 and the last date is March 30. Sources say at least four candidates of the Congress and three of BJP have so far chosen dates different from the ones suggested by their parties.
The ‘divine’ dates have apparently been suggested by spiritual gurus, no less.