Tailpiece

The BJPs newly announced candidate for Lucknow,Lalji Tandon,is known for his proximity to former prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But party old-timers have scores of anecdotes on how Babuji as the 72-year-old Tandon is called by partymen in the city cosied up to Samajwadi Party and BSP leaderships in the state. One of them concerns the visit by a BJP delegation to the residence of then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to protest against the attack on a party legislator. But they were taken aback when Tandon,who was leading the delegation,generously partook of rasgullas and samosas that Mulayam had to offer them.

Babuji has since then been known as the rasgullas/samosa leader in the BJP circuit in Uttar Pradesh.