Waiting for H D Kumaraswamy in his hotel lobby,a common enough sight catches the eye. A lineup of wall clocks that tell the time of the day in London,South Africa,France,Washington,Sydney and,hold your breath,Mysore. Some are country names and some city names. Forget the category mismatch,is there a Mysore Standard Time? Royalists and republicans are no longer slugging it out in this city of palaces. The princely states accession to the Indian Union is a long settled matter. Nevertheless,the first thing the visitor senses on arrival is the citys high self-esteem. And enough happens over the weekend to suggest that pride could well play out in this election. The political class will have to reckon with the psephology of self image. On Monday last,when the Election Commission announced door delivery of voter identity slips,a local eveninger described the move as historic. Polls are finally coming to your doorstep,play host to a fault. More vitally,when Siddaramaiah,our Mysore boy cut out for the top job,released a Congress manifesto customised for the Heritage City,it was widely hailed as epochal. A longtime Mysore watcher sees great synergy between the CM material and his proud hometown but is quick to qualify that the Congress party cant ride on pride all the way to the finish line. The developmental manifesto with an annual provision of Rs 200 crore is surely exciting but no big deal. Mysore has seen much pioneering advancement,civic and social,since the days of Visveswarayya. It has a self image that has been fed and seasoned through the decades. The unlikely one who details the historic process with professorial elan is a planter from Coorg who set up home here. So,when you are born here you love the place; when you settle in you research it as well. One would have expected a rooted regional leader like Deve Gowda to come up with a Mysore Manifesto. He was a past master at localisation. Never took his eyes off the Hassan City Municipal Council even as he ran the country as PM. This round,however,Siddaramaiah scored over Kumaraswamy,himself a major player in the Mysore belt. Yet,the Congress plan,however novel and city-friendly,will face diligent queries on intent,competence,performance and past record. The BJP on its part will have to do something smarter to meet the challenge. Surely,more than a bike rally. The bunch of flag-waving bikers piloting the partys candidate turned out a bit of a damper particularly after the Harley Davidson rally the previous day. In the suburban stretches around town,BJP outfits reflect the local spirit more than Delhi stress. Their posters and banners show an array of leaders Vajpayee,Advani,Rajnath Singh,Sushma Swaraj and then Narendra Modi. In that order. The laidback,reflective Mysore may not do a Mangalore any time soon. Lately,the coastal Hindutva lab itself isnt yielding expected results. Wholl vote for moral policing?,asks a Mysore veteran pushing seventies,nattily dressed for dinner. In the same breath,he tears into the Congress for the 1984 riots,back in the news. So that leaves you with whom to vote for? Someone in tune with these parts. The place has a liberal tradition. Havent heard the L-word uttered more often than in the last 48 hours. Our R K Narayan and your R K Laxman are all from here. It is an open space that produces such minds. Is something like an urbane voter emerging in our urban centres? Our politicos have had it.
