By IANS,
New Delhi : After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani’s mask hit the market, the party has now come out with band-aids and bags with his photograph.
The shop in the party’s office is selling scores of band-aids with Advani and party president Rajnath Singh’s photos. With the ban on polybags being enforced in Delhi, the shop is now selling cloth bags in the party’s colours – green and saffron.
The party is also thinking of selling electric bulbs in the shape of the party’s symbol lotus. It even plans to present the actual flower to woo voters.
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Youth Congress miffed with “imported” Tharoor
Author, columnist and former UN undersecretary general Shashi Tharoor, whose name is being considered as the Congress candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, has met with strong resistance from the youth brigade of the party.
Sunday evening, an angry group of activists believed to be from the Youth Congress marched towards the party headquarters in the Kerala here and burnt Tharoor in effigy.
Meanwhile, reports indicate a large number of fax messages have gone to the Congress high command not to include “imported people” among the candidates in any of the 17 seats that the party will contest in the state.
A senior Congress leader, on condition of anonymity, said Tharoor flew in from New York last week and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh besides the top brass of the state leaders to apparently get his candidature cleared.
“Is it fair to give a seat to such �imports’, when the rank and file sweat it out day in and day out,” asked the leader.
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Buy kurta-pyjama for Rs. 100 this poll season
In Lucknow, for just Rs.100, you can follow the dress code of politicians. Welcome to the small shops dotting the premises of Darul-Shafa (a colony that houses ministers and legislators) where kurta-pyjamas, the quintessential attire of Indian politicians, are selling briskly.
“Those turning up at our shops are not ministers or MLAs. They are small-time party workers, who cannot afford the attire from standard shops,” said Sanabala, owner of a shop. From designer to plain, we offer different varieties of kurtas and pyjamas. For just Rs.100, we make you ready to participate in political meetings,” he grinned.
“In this election season, we are selling nearly 20-25 kurta-pyjamas daily,” Sanabala said.
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Suresh Pachauri awaits Sonia nod
The candidature of Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Suresh Pachauri from Hoshangabad Lok Sabha seat seems to be in jeopardy. His name was cleared by the central election committee (CEC), but it was missing from the first list of 12 candidates from the state, announced Thursday.
Some party managers believe this may be because in the Congress high command there is a view that state unit chiefs should focus on election management instead of contesting themselves.
Pachauri’s case has been referred to party president Sonia Gandhi for a decision. “The matter is pending with the Congress president and she is likely to take a decision in the next couple of days over the issue whether state Congress presidents would contest Lok Sabha elections,” said Madhya Pradesh party spokesperson Arvind Malviya.