BJP’s Sarah Palin - Vijay Kumar Melhotra

By Neha Kapoor

We may not have found our Obama yet, but it looks like we’ve got a Sarah Palin equivalent all right. Rewind to the finger pointing that went on in the Republican camp as the McCain campaign stuttered in the final weeks of the US presidential poll. Palin couldn’t do anything right. She was painted as the ultimate wrong woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. The BJP in Delhi is going down the same road. Find a sucker and blame him for your problems. The BJP’s Sarah Palin is its chief ministerial candidate for Delhi, Vijay Kumar Malhotra. He’s become the butt of ridicule and criticism in party circles as the going gets tough in an election the BJP should have won with ease. Like Sarah Palin, Malhotra just can’t seem to get it right. Every time he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it. He’s the male counterpart of the Palin airhead, minus her glamour.

Malhotra has created so many Palin moments for the BJP that the party has now put a gag order on him. Television debates were the first casualty. He has been forbidden from participating in them after his silver-tongued Congress opponent, sitting chief minister Sheila Dikshit, made mincemeat of him in the first two. If US-style presidential television debates could decide the outcome of our elections, Dikshit would have won hands down. Malhotra’s excuse for his no-show at the third debate was a sore throat. He told some journalists that he’s had to start daily gargles to keep his throat in working order for his campaign speeches.

The second casualty was the series of public meetings that Malhotra was to address in different parts of Delhi. The party had planned to showcase its future chief minister through these rallies. Instead, he’s been told to stay put in his assembly constituency of Greater Kailash and not venture out. These days, Malhotra can be found at ladies’kirtans and small friendly gatherings where he can speak without fear of censure.

Fortunately for him, the Congress has nominated a virtual unknown to contest against him. Jitendra Kochchar was third on the Congress suggested list for Greater Kailash but he managed to streak ahead of the other two to bag the ticket. They say that Malhotra struck a deal with Congress power brokers to give him a smooth ride by putting up a “weak” candidate. Politics is all about mutual accommodation, even with the opposition. With the BJP going through major anxiety pangs over Malhotra, one wonders what’s in store for the man if the party fails to pull off a victory in Delhi. Perhaps it should have chosen an Obama instead of settling for a Palin.

TAILPIECE
Elections have become so difficult to predict that politicians have started keeping a close watch on the satta bazaar for a market assessment of their fortunes. Many candidates monitor the rates on a daily basis just to be sure. And all of them swear by the satta bazaar as the most accurate barometer of public mood. But this time, the oracle is sending out confusing signals. The markets in different cities have conflicting takes on the polls, making the outcome almost impossible to read. No wonder there’s so much talk about hung assemblies and neck-and-neck contests.