Timeline goes awry
J Jayalalithaa was fuming because she had to delay her oath-taking by 20 minutes because governor S S Barnala arrived late. Her pundits had deemed 12.15 p.m. as the most auspicious moment and the superstitious Jayalalithaa was keen to start her regime on the right note. Some felt that Barnala,a close friend of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi,might have deliberately delayed his arrival. But the Governors staff maintains that Barnala,who was expected at 12.14 p.m.,was held up because of a traffic jam. The same day,Jayalalithaa transferred the Chennai police commissioner. Several VIPs got stuck in traffic jams that morning because Jayalalithaa instructed the police to deal courteously with AIADMK supporters flocking the roads. The police consequently was chary of using strong arm methods. The Barnala-Karunanidhi friendship goes back to the Emergency when the Akali Dal leader was lodged in Coimbatore jail. With Karunanidhi out,the frail,85-year-old Barnala will no doubt be leaving Chennai soon.
Counting on chickens
Nitin Gadkaris backroom boy Arun Narendranath was considered the partys computer whizkid for his role during the Bihar Assembly poll in pinpointing the most suitable party candidate on the basis of information from internal constituency poll surveys. Nath,now has to face the sniggers for the BJPs abysmal performance in the Assam election. Gadkari was so impressed with him after the Bihar poll that at a public speech in Varanasi,he announced that his selection for candidates to the UP assembly would be based entirely on analysis of data from poll surveys and not on the recommendations of party leaders,be it a Rajnath Singh or a Kalraj Mishra. He forgot that the success of the BJP in Bihar should really be attributed to hanging onto Nitish Kumars coattails and not because of astute selection of candidates.
In 2009,Nath had worked with Sudheendra Kulkarni on the BJPs ill-fated 2009 parliamentary campaign. After Kulkarni fell from favour,Gadkaris right-hand man Vinay Sahasrabuddhe introduced him to the party president. Many prospective candidates cultivated the youngster,believing that sitting in Delhi he had amazing clout in deciding who should stand from which constituency. On the basis of internal surveys and Naths inputs,the BJP leadership was so hopeful of its performance in Assam that it had even discussed with the AGP the possibility of a post electoral tie-up before the election results.
Self protection
Prakash Karat has conceded that the CPI(M) could think in terms of amending the party constitution so that the party general secretary has a fixed tenure. In an interview,Karat suggested that the cap on the number of terms for a party secretary be limited to three or four. That would save Karats own neck since he has already completed two terms in office. Karat is on the backfoot knowing that the CPI(M)s Bengal unit is up in arms and his one-time biggest backer,Kerala state secretary,Pinarayi Vijayan,is himself on a weakened wicket and unhappy that his arch rival,V S Achuthanandan,will be the Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly.
Additional precaution
Following complaints about EVMs during the parliamentary polls,the Election Commission introduced an additional precaution this time. After votes in each segment of the constituency were counted,the figure was not simply put up on the black board and announced,but a videograph was made of the black board figures. Earlier,the figures of each individual segment were not stored permanently.
A Modified plan
When Sonia Gandhi telephoned Jayalalithaa to congratulate her for the spectacular victory in Tamil Nadu,there was panic in the DMK ranks. Karunanidhi feared that another Jayalalithaa-Sonia reconciliation tea party was in the offing and that Sonia Gandhi would attend Jayalalithaas oath taking ceremony,which would have signalled the end of the Congress-DMK alliance. The DMK is grateful to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for flying down to Chennai for Jayalalithaas swearing in. Modis presence ensured that Gandhi would stay away.
