Tailpiece

You could say it’s the gender argument against mid-term polls. Politicians across party lines believe that the only beneficiaries of a possible general elections at this time would be four women—Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Sonia Gandhi. A Congress MP volunteered to present this byte of information to CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia in Parliament last Thursday. The Marxist was apparently not impressed as he walked away without responding, leaving the Congressman wondering, “Did he expect Brinda Karat’s name in that list?”