Democracy146;s Drawing Room Demagogues

Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee has once again not been given a Congress ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls. He thus remains one ...

Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee has once again not been given a Congress ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls. He thus remains one of India8217;s most important politicians, yet he is totally unelected. Mukherjee, like Ambika Soni and Arun Jaitley, has never won an election. Their constituencies are television studios, their election manifestoes are soundbytes. In Elections 2004, even former crowd-pullers like Sushma Swaraj and Pramod Mahajan are not going to contest, showing that increasingly the 8216;8216;strategists8217;8217; are considered to be alienated from the grassroots. Having spent too much time in the Capital, they have lost their mass appeal and 8216;8216;winnability8217;8217;. Today8217;s backroom boys and girls like to stay indoors.

CONGRESS

Ambika Soni: Rose to prominence during the Sanjay Gandhi years and has never won elections, although there are reports that she was keen to contest from Hoshiarpur. Made to shoulder responsibility for party8217;s defeats in last year8217;s Assembly polls, she continues as one of Sonia8217;s unelected strategists.

Ahmed Patel: Won LS polls from Bharuch in 1984 and 1989, but since his elevation to party planner and backroom operator he is increasingly cut off from seeking the people8217;s verdict.

Ghulam Nabi Azad: Unable to find popular support in his native Jammu and Kashmir, he contested and won LS elections from Washim, Maharashtra in 8217;84 and 8217;89. Azad, seen regularly on TV and in the newspapers, is reportedly part of the Congress think-tank, but also unelected for several years now.

BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY

Arun Jaitley: There are reports that he might have contested and won from Amritsar with Akali support or even from Bhopal, but Jaitley has instead been put in charge of steering Karnataka into the hands of the BJP.

Pramod Mahajan: Was keen on contesting from Jaipur, offered to him by Vasundhara, and was reportedly also keen to stand from South Mumbai. Now, he is back to his war room, cyber-tech and Delhi-based psephology.

Sushma Swaraj: After her 1998 defeat in the Delhi polls, she lost in Bellary despite her overnight conquest of the Kannada language. Since then, Swaraj has not been fielded as a winnable candidate. Instead her famed oratory is confined almost totally to TV talk shows.