Meanwhile, in…

CHENNAI: Going by the poll posters in Tamil Nadu, no party has anything to say for itself. They are too busy lampooning the others. The DMK-TMC’s posters project Jayalalitha as, among other things, a bandicoot dressed in gold, a turncoat and a corrupt leader worthy of the dustbin. Keeping her company in the last poster are an “opportunist” A.B. Vajpayee, “communal” L.K. Advani, “dictator” Subramanian Swamy and “casteist” Vazhapadi Ramamurthi. The AIADMK, in turn, shows the DMK’s M. Karunanidhi, the TMC’s G.K. Moopanar and others as beggars or midgets.

PATNA: The Bihar State Gaz-etted Officers’ Federation wants paramilitary personnel to be provided as escorts to all officers doing poll duty in the State. In fax messages to CEC M.S. Gill and the State Government, they have also demandedthat officers be insured for Rs 10 lakh each and that the physically disabled not be put on election duty. In case there is any casualty during elections, the federation has further said, it would take the matter to court.

MUMBAI: Bollywood is in great demand in these elections. The BJP, of course, has the best star cast. A run-down on who has got whom. The saffron front has Vinod Khanna, Dara Singh, Mukesh Khanna, Vijayashanti, Gautami, besides character actors Prasad Baby and Giri Babu, and old-timer Shatrughan Sinha. Its partner, the Shiv Sena, has roped in Nana Patekar, who is lending his fire power in Patna. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has cast its favourite, Raj Babbar, who is campaigning with its supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav. The SP also has Dilip Kumar’s histrionics to fall back upon. The Left has got Mithun Chakraborty to campaign for CPI(M) candidates in West Bengal. I.K. Gujral isn’t doing so bad either: veteran Shabana Azmi was present at one of his meetings.

HOSPET (KARNATAKA):The 2,000 villagers of Gunda, falling in this taluka and under the Koppal Lok Sabha seat, have decided they do not want anything to do with elections. The mineral-rich village does not have any communication system, and the angry villagers have decided to boycott elections. They had stayed away from the polls last time too.

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) believes Chief Minister Bansi Lal has deployed even the Intelligence wing to ensure victory for his son, Surinder Singh. He has complained that 360 CID personnel have been pressed into service in the Bhiwani Lok Sabha seat from where Singh is standing. The Dal’s spokesperson, R.S. Choudhary, has even the details of the men in the field, claiming they are all armed with a revolver and a walker-talkie set and that their function was to strike awe and rig elections. The Dal has threatened to go to the EC now.

KURNOOL: In another blow to the Congress, its Andhra Pradesh unit general secretary, Challa Ramakrishna Reddy, has beendetained by the police under the Preventive Detention Act in the run-up to the polls. The authorities have similarly detained a Telugu Desam Party leader, A. Subba Reddy, who is a close associate of the party’s Nandyal candidate, Bhooma Nagireddy.

MUMBAI: The cut-out culture has caught on in Maharastra. And standing tall are Sonia Gandhi and Bal Thackeray. Artists here say they have received numerous orders for their posters. Sonia is soaring for now, with at least 500 medium and life-size cut-outs of her reportedly being in circulation in the State.