All the Cong's horses

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There were no proclamations of 'Soniaaaaa... I love you' from the crowd, but let's admit it - there was one thing the Sonia Gandhi rally did to all the Cong's horses and all the Cong's men in Karnataka - they sat together for a good hour and a half, which is no mean achievement!

The 'Bharat Nirman rally' (yes, that's what it was called, though everyone thought it was just called the 'Sonia Gandhi rally') in Davangere saw some 2 lakh plus people from across Karnataka coming together to listen to the desh ki bahu. (Or perhaps they just came to see her helicopter... there was certainly a clamour to take a look at that.) That's got to be good news for a party that's been a divided house for a long time in the state - one joke goes that there are more factions of the Karnataka Congress than there are leaders.

But here they were - together in their starched dhotis, shaking hands with villagers when there was time ahead of the rally, talking to the vokkaligas, the lingayats, the kurubas, the idigas and the numerous castes that make up the big Karnataka vote-bank. Jaffer Sharief (who had threatened to quit the party ahead of the Assembly elections), Siddaramaiah (who is always seen as a threat himself by others), DK Shivakumar and Tejaswini (who've been fighting for many months now), Kharge and Dharam Singh and Moily (who all want to fight the Lok SAbha elections now).

To that extent, the rally was perhaps a success - but, fact is, it had strange timing. Ms Gandhi kicked off the party campaigning when she hadn't named a single candidate who is to be fielded from any Lok Sabha seat in the State. But the wits have it that that would've been a little too much. As one Youth Congress leader put it, "here are at least eight one-upping Congressmen who've come together, would you want the list of candidates contesting as well? What are you, greedy?"

For, everyone knew that the minute the list is announced, there will no longer be that kind of bonhomie. In fact, though the list of candidates was almost ready, the party 'high-command' decided to not make it public because those denied tickets could well make the rally an unpleasant one.

During the Assembly elections, Davangere was the ground of much nautanki. The Congress had withheld the 'B' form till the last minute, sending it down by a helicopter with 3 loyalists on the last day of filing nominations. The party's official candidate was Syed Saifulla, but soon after the chopper landed, it was surrounded by supporters of S S Mallikarjuna, who escorted the three-some to the returning officer's office. Mallikarjuna, by the way, is the son of Shamanur Shivashankarappa, after whose family almost every road and every junction is named in Davangere.

Saifulla, the official candidate, was forced to hand over the 'B' form to Mallikarjuna, and write the latter's name in it. But that kind of last minute change was termed invalid by the electoral officer - end result : the Congress never had a candidate from here !

Well, now you know why the grand old party couldn't take the risk of naming its candidates ahead of the grand Sonia rally!

Star rebel

Did we say we saw them all? Ouch! But there was no Ambarish!

The 'rebel star' of Kannada cinema and three-time MP from Mandya seemed to have... well, rebelled.

For the last few weeks, Malavalli Huchegowda Ambarish has been saying he's 'dissatisfied' with the Congress, and 'is in great demand' from other parties. Even a day after the Sonia rally, he was getting cozier with the BJP.

But Congress' poll calculators say this kind of drama is common ahead of every election. So let's just wait and see if he actually quits. Plus there's this point - this is an MP who is known to have called in sick to the Lok Sabha just so he could be running around trees for Kannada flicks. Maybe the voters of Mandya should think of that before being blinded by their love for 'Ambi-anna.' (But I say this in vain... I know there's little hope for such a thing.)

How old is old?

You can't really say politics in Karnataka has come of age, but, come to think of it, age is the talking point for many politicians.

The BJP says it's caught the imagination of the youth - that young voters are with them. And that it is fielding 'youths like B Y Raghavendra and Shivakumar Udasi,' as against the Congress' aging politicians.

It has also been ridiculing the Congress' projection of 77-year-old Manmohan Singh as PM candidate. But in its glass house is an 81-year-old Lal Krishna Advani. Any chat with Advani will get you waxing nostalgic on how he has seen every prime minister from Jawaharlal Nehru on. Very interesting, but do you realize it speaks volumes on your age?

And the saffrons have different defences for this - "He may be 81, but he has the heart of a 40-year-old," thunders Venkaiah Naidu. "There is a difference between a PM candidate and an MP candidate," says Yeddyurarappa, who's young son of 31 summers is contesting from Shimoga this time.

Sure there's a difference, but it's the same difference.

All in the family

If family politics continues as it is doing right now, we may soon reach a stage when about 50 families will rule over Karnataka. There are, for instance, 3 members from Deve Gowda's family in the Assembly right now (give his grandsons some time, they'll be eligible to be MLAs soon). Other surnames that are one too many are the Bellary Reddys, the Jharkiholis, the Lads, the Bangarappas. And oh yes, the above-mentioned Shamanur family.

Let's assume that there will be 4 from each family in the Legislature in, say, ten years from now. In a 224-member Assembly, that means, about 50 families will rule over the State! Like the 'Forbes 50' list, we'll make the 'Force 50' from here.

CM of Shimoga

Talking of family polity, the chief minister, they say, is spending more time in Shimoga these days than anywhere else - yes, of course, he's campaigning for laadla beta, Raghavendra. Talk is, that he's more the Chief Minister of Shimoga than of Karnataka. Ask him about it and he only says, "Everyone has been saying it's an important constituency to win. So it's natural to spend time there."

Who is everyone, anyway?