Keeping distance

Who did CPM top guns Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury vote for? Certainly not for their party. Neither the CPM nor any other Left parties fielded candidates in the New Delhi constituency,where Karat is a registered voter,or in Mehrauli where Yechury cast his vote. Among the 17 choices Karat had were Sheila Dikshit,Vijender Gupta and Arvind Kejriwal. There was a BSP candidate as well in the fray. For other Delhi-based politburo members like S Ramachandran Pillai,it was easy. SRP is a voter in Kerala. Both Karat and Yechury,however,had the NOTA option,but they are unlikely to have used it as the party had argued that the Supreme Court should have consulted political parties before introducing None-of-the-Above option. The veteran comrades who did exercise their franchise Wednesday have left everybody guessing.

LYING LOW

None of the Congress leaders was present at any television studios to discuss exit poll results Wednesday. The party as it had done in the past boycotted the channels as it has taken a position against such polls. Party spin doctors claim that it is because they believe such polls are not scientific and can be manipulated and manoeuvred by vested interests. It had supported the Election Commissions proposal to restrict publication and dissemination of opinion polls during the elections. No wonder,opposition parties are having a field day saying grapes are sour.

MAIL TRAP

An email titled urgent went out of the Railway Ministry early Wednesday wherein it seemed its Additional Director General,Public Relations,Anil Saxena a PIB officer asked every recipient some key officials,journalists,etc for 1,500 British as help because he was stranded in London. The mail also had details of accounts where the money was to be wired. As alarm bells rang in the ministry following the mail,officials realised that the email account had been hacked. By evening,an SMS went out from the PIBs official system asking people to ignore the email.