The Congress has decided Rahul’s 120 rallies and Sonia’s 80 election rallies will take place in only those constituencies that the party has classified as A and B categories.

When candidates would come to campaign in far flung areas of states such as UP, Bihar and Jharkhand, big crows would gather to see their helicopters. But any Tom, Dick and Harry uses a helicopter nowadays. Now the craze is to see Narendra Modi. BJP candidates in these areas are requesting for only one thing nowadays – please arrange a Modi Sabha. 

A prominent saffron leader contesting from Purvanchal got a public opinion survey conducted in his constituency before the party distributed tickets for elections. The sample size for the opinion poll was kept at 2,500 and the leader was being shown as a winner by more than three lakh votes. After the election tickets were handed out in UP, he again got a survey conducted, but this time with a sample size that was almost double – that is 5,600. Then his win margin was shown as coming down to 2 lakh to 2.5 lakh votes. Then he found out that 50,000-60,000 of his Brahmin votes had gone into the BSP kitty. Because the survey company had also noted down the phone numbers of people who were questioned, the BJP leader called up several people from villages with a majority of Brahmins and all of them had the same grouse – Brahmins are no longer respected in the BJP now.

Bhartiya Janta Party is giving its all in Varanasi because Narendra Modi is scheduled to contest from there. And the saffron party’s communications department is trying out all kinds of traditional and new ways to campaign. Care is being taken that the message reaches all peoples at all levels. Varanasi is also called Kabir’s land, and thus Modi’s sena has sent a group of 200 Kabir Panthis from Gujarat to Varanasi, who is talking about Modi just like the sing Kabir’s couplets. This group of Kabir Panthis will not limit itself to campaign in Varanasi alone but will meet with and appeal to the Sadhu community and the common people in Purvanchal to vote for Modi and make him win. This group is based out of Mooldagi Math near Kabir Chaura. Kabir bhajans have really picked up in Varanasi even since the group arrived in the city. 

A prominent politician of the BJP spoke to Bhojpuri singer/ actor  Manoj Tiwari about a few constituencies and requested him to fix his dates for campaigning at these places. Tiwari humbly told him, “Sir, my charges per day are Rs two lakh. Kindly send that money, too.” Cat got the political leader’s tongue the moment he heard that. 

Trying his luck for the first time in elections, Arun Jaitley does not seem to be too concerned about having to do an election face-off against heavyweight such as Captain Amrinder Singh. He is busy relishing the chholey-kulchey in Amritsar. When asked how he liked the city, Jaitley spoke in rustic Punjabi, “This is my own town. My sister stays here. My wife Dolly’s uncle stays here, too.” When asked, “What about the 65 per cent Sikh votes? Won’t they prefer Captain?”, Jaitley prefers to smile and keep quiet. He knows the entire matter is about handing the Badal family and their confidante Majithia. 

Priyanka Gandhi also played a big role in having Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishan contest from Jaunpur. Initially, she had given the responsibility to talk to Ravi Kishan to Mumbai congress leader  Kripashankar Singh. When Kripashankar spoke to Ravi Kishan, he kept avoiding the matter and then Priyanka handed over the job to Rajiv Shukla. Known for his political moves, Shukla had Ravi Kishan meet Priyanka the very next day and Ravi Kishan could not turn down her offer and he agreed to contest the elections on the Congress ticket. The twist in the entire matter was that BJP President Rajnath Singh himself has been in touch throughout with Ravi Kishan and he had, in a way, got Ravi Kishan to agree to contesting elections from the BJP in Jaunpur. But Priyanka came in and turned the tables at the last moment. Similarly, the party wanted Raj Babbar to contest from Lucknow but considering the caste ratios, Priyanka sent him to Ghaziabad because the loss-win may change due to the presence of Muslims, Jats and Punjabis. In the same way, it was Priyanka’s decision to have Arjun Singh’s son to contest from Satna, Purnamasi Ram from Gopalganj and also to have Acharya Pramod and Imran Masood contest the elections. At the same time, Priyanka has decided for herself that she will contest the next Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareilly, which is her mother’s seat. Which means that may be the last time Sonia contests the elections. On the other hand, there are indications that Priyanka may make a foray into active politics. 

Kejriwal may ride roughshod over the Adanis and Ambanis the public, but a few of his party leaders are not hesitating before asking for donations from the Ambanis. A few days ago, a AAP leader, who has also been a social worker in the past, saw his name being announced in the list for election contestants. Thereafter, he opened up his hands to ask for donations from both Ambani brothers. Top executives from both business houses asked the political leader if he had got a green signal from the party supremo before he came to ask for donations from them. 

The TRS and Congress are outdoing each other trying to take credit for Telengana formation. Committed to not let TRS take the credit, the Congress has come up with a recent slogan, “Sonia in every household, Congress in every doorstep.”  

Arvind Kejriwal is trying out new political exercises to become stronger. He feels that if the party has to get a strong footing in a state such as Uttar Pradesh, he will have to get Muslim voters to his side. With this thought he has again approached the controversial Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan. It must be remembered that this is the same Tauqeer Raza who grabbed the headlines with the fatwa asking for Bangladesh writer Tasleema Nasreen’s head. Tauqeer Raza has also formed his own political party, but it is not active in the elections this time. Thus, he is free to support any party like AAP, and Kejriwal wants to grab the chance with both his hands.