The Kalmadi clout

There seems to be a message for Sports Minister Ajay Maken who is leading the charge to keep tainted Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi out of the Indian Olympic Association

The Kalmadi clout

There seems to be a message for Sports Minister Ajay Maken who is leading the charge to keep tainted Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi out of the Indian Olympic Association. Down but certainly not out,Kalmadi,even though in Tihar jail at that time,had ensured the nomination of at least 100 of his loyalists for the recent polls for the 152-member Pune Municipal Corporation. Those grateful loyalists had ensured such a big crowd at the Pune airport on Kalmadis first arrival in his home town after being released on bail that it took more than an hour after he had reached home for the traffic in the city to get normal. To the discomfort of Maken,Kalmadi has no dearth of supporters in the IOA as well which he has been heading for several years now.

Love Tracks

The Indian Railways may be struggling to make both ends meet,but it never fails to play the role of a benign big brother when it comes out to helping rail network in neighbouring countries. After deciding to rebuild the network in the strife-torn northern Sri Lanka,its export arm has now signed a pact with Bangladesh to provide 10 broad-guage diesel locomotives for around 40 million. The Railways plans for Nepal is already afoot. Amid all this,the only country that seems to be missing from this neighbourly rail-love is Pakistan. Last year,the Indian Railways expressed its inability to lend a few locos to Pakistani railway which is now learnt to be exploring the option for calling a global tender for procuring engines.

Chopper Politics

With the supply of helicopters hardly able to keep pace with the heavy demand in the poll-bound states,a number of star campaigners have often found themselves stranded at various places. In Uttarakhand,for instance,the rivalry between Congresss Vijay Bahuguna,who is the campaign committee chairperson and hence,controlled the four choppers hired by the party,and Union minister Harish Rawat both contenders for the CMs post resulted in Central ministers getting stranded in Dehradun. Power Minister Sushil Shinde failed to get a chopper and had to wait endlessly at the airport,finally getting rescued by Rahul Gandhi who took him along with him on his helicopter towards Pithoragarh.

Poll Fault

Focusing its entire attention on party general secretary Rahul Gandhi,who it is convinced will restore the lost glory of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh,party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh seemed to have missed out on what the Election Commission did. Its latest issue has printed wrong polling dates for UP. The EC had changed the date of the first phase of polling and made it the last phase,but apparently it did not register with the magazines editors.