By IANS,
New Delhi : A Congress MP from Delhi, which is usually water starved in summer, is thinking out of the box and hoping it will translate into votes in the Lok Sabha polls.
Krishna Tirath is contesting from Northwest Delhi, reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes community. But instead of seeking caste-based votes, she wants to motivate voters on issues like water harvesting.
Tirath said she would concentrate on things that matter to people “like the status of women, needs of labourers and water”.
“A water tank in my constituency is lying unused. If water is harvested then the groundwater problems can be tackled. Water is going to be one of my poll issues,” she said.
Perhaps the crucial element, “water”, will decide her fate.
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Where losers will fight to win
Come what may, one loser may win this time from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency. For, the three leading candidates here are regular losers.
These are M.I. Shahnawaz of the Congress who has lost five elections in the past. His last defeat came in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
The others are M. Rehamtullah of the Communist Party of India and K. Muraleedharan, the state president of the Nationalist Congress Party and son of Congress veteran K. Karunakaran.
Of the three, only Muraleedharan has actually won an election – 1999 Lok Sabha polls from Kozhikode – in the recent past.
Quipped a Kerala Congress legislator P.C. George: “One of the three can set the record straight from being routine losers.”
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A minister and an imposter
A Goa minister ended up embarrassing the ruling Congress when he introduced a man as the political advisor to party president Sonia Gandhi. Turned out he was an imposter.
Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao, whose daughter Valanka has been denied a ticket for South Goa, introduced a man called N.K. Sharma at a public rally saying he was close to Gandhi. The latter said Valanka was still in the nominations race.
But later, the state unit declared Sharma an “imposter”.
Alemao has embarrassed Gandhi in the past too. In 1999, he had called her the “pall bearer” of democracy, but later apologised for the error saying he had actually meant to say “torch bearer” of democracy.
So far no apology has come. But a party inquiry has been started into the matter.
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Will online success be offline success too?
With more than 25,000 hits everyday, the website of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K Advani is one of the most frequently visited sites, claim party leaders.
It was launched last year with the aim of reaching out to the youth ahead of elections.
“The website has proven to be very successful for netizens to interact with Advaniji. Thousands of posts, discussion forums and huge number of volunteers joining his campaign is proof of that,” claimed a BJP leader.
Now whether the website’s success will translate into a similar number of votes remains to be seen, says a Congress leader.