Psephologist babus
While the political leaders are engaged in preparing the candidates’ lists the Babus are enjoying their time, waxing eloquent on the probable outcome of the Assembly polls due in five states. Some of them have turned psephologists, predicting with animated confidence over the tally of seats the elections would throw up. Some are predicting doom for the ruling party in Uttarakhand. Babus being Babus, they do not take time to forget the benefits they have milked from their proximity to the high and the mighty when the latter’s chips are down. As is their wont, they are now looking forward to the installation of a new government and the largesse they are expected to get from the new dispensation. One of them who is supposed to be close to the present dispensation is being heard eulogizing the Opposition leaders while hurling abuses on those who are presently running the show in the state. A commoner is bound to feel aghast at the no-holds-barred debates that are presently going on in the blessed Babudom, a little over a month left for the great democratic engagement in the state.
Babu banking on magic
A former bureaucrat, who has decided to throw his hat in the electoral ring from a particular assembly constituency of the state, has been hogging the limelight for some days. As he is yet to get response from either of the two principal parties-Congress and BJP-the indomitable Babu is steeling his nerves to contest as an independent.
Known for his sterling quality of pulling out a rabbit from his hat while his political mentors were literally scratching their heads in quest of solutions to vexed problems, the former Babu is presently trying all tricks in the book to keep his electorate under a magic spell.
Duopoly reigning in the state with a sharply polarized electorate, it is difficult to say whether he would successfully cut his teeth in the electoral politics if he remains in the reckoning as an independent candidate. He is sitting in his office in the constituency from 9 am to 6 pm, trying hard to endear himself to the people that matters now.
However, corruption charges tagged to him when he was leading the Babudom continues to cling to him like the proverbial albatross. It is to be seen whether the Babu would conjure up magical tricks enough to cajole the people, he is now courting, into glossing over graft charges and helping him slay the two parties who are set to deny him nomination by his magical ‘Brahmastra’.