Chitra Singh takes over campaigning in Barmer

Thirty year old Chitra Singh, sari designer for exhibitions, attired in the traditional Rajput way has begun to campaign for her ageing father-in-law Jaswant Singh in Rajasthan’s largest parliamentary constituency Barmer under the scorching sun. Chitra is a graduate from Ajmer’s Sophia College and has taken up this demanding job of campaigning to save the honor of her father-in-law veteran leader Jaswant running as an Independent candidate on her delicate shoulders to honor the wishes of the people and party workers of the region. She is assisting him as it is impossible for him to alone manage the show due to age and extreme heat. Chitra’s husband and Jaswant’s son Manvendra being the lawmaker from Sheo Assembly which falls under the Barmer Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency has been incapacitated due to BJP party discipline and stress. He is unable to carry the responsibility of campaigning on behalf of his father. Chitra knows the vibe of this deeply conservative belt in Rajasthan and is working towards garnering votes for the veteran leader Jaswant who has been expelled by the BJP for six years. Having previously campaigned for her husband she has taken to it easily as feels the people want her father-in-law. Politics runs in their family and she wants her father-in-law to win from their home turf. When asked she said that the Rajputs, Dalits and Muslim electorate are their best bet as the Jats are expected to vote for Sonaram Chaudhury a Jat and BJP nominee from Barmer. This is the first time that sitting MP Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling in West Bengal is standing from Barmer. He has been a four time Lok Sabha and five time Rajya Sabha...

2014 Bengal Lok Sabha election scenario

With the General Elections 2014 in Bengal a chance to prove her popularity Mamata Banerjee the CM of West Bengal who has been responsible for terminating the 34 year stint of the CPM party in Bengal has simply pulled out all stops to lay claim on a maximum number of Lok Sabha seats out of the 42 in contention in the state. The 59 year old loving Didi attired in a simple cotton sari and slippers is amongst the most versatile politicians that India has witnessed. She formed the Trinamul Congress in 1997 which won the West Bengal Assembly Election of 2011. The TMC is arguably trying to improve on its 2009 Lok Sabha tally of 20 seats. Mamata has nominated high-profile candidates like footballers Bhaichung Bhutia and Prasun Banerjee, film personalities Moon Moon Sen, Dev and Tapas Pal. Bengal will face five phases of polling in 2014 commencing from April 17 till May 12. While North Bengal will be voting on April 17 for the constituencies of Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar the second phase will be in Raigunj, Malda north and south, Balurghat, Jangipur and Murshidabad on April 24. Then polling will be held on April 30 in the districts of Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, Burdwan east and Burdwan-Durgapur for nine parliamentary constituencies. On May 7 the fourth round of polling will be at Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura for six constituencies. Lastly the polls end with the all crucial 17 constituencies included in Kolkata, North and South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore and Berhampore. Mamata with cast of film stars, football icons and famous singers in addition to the seasoned politicians wants to hold state’s electorate spell bound so that they can look no further. The voters from West Bengal have been confronted with many a famed personality though being a political greenhorn like Dev who is contesting from Ghatal constituency in West Midnapore district, Moonmoon Sen from Bankura, Baichung Bhutia from Darjeeling and Sandhya Roy from Midnapore. Others include sitting MPs Satabdi Roy from Birbhum and Tapas Pal from Krishnagar who have been re-nominated by Trinamul Congress. Prasun Banerjee has been fielded by the ruling party from Howrah against George Baker of BJP, singer Indranil Sen who has been pitted against Adhir Choudhury of Congress tipped to win, singer Soumitra Roy from Malda North and thespian Arpita Ghosh from Balurghat. Magician P C Sorkar will be fighting from Barasat, musician Bappi Lahiri is nominated from Serampore, singer Babul Supriyo from Asansol, Joy Banerjee from Birbhum and Nimu Bhowmik...

Chidambaram not to contest in election 2014

The news from the Congress camp is that our present finance minister P. Chidambaram, the sitting MP from Sivaganga parliamentary constituency is not contesting in this Lok Sabha elections. He will in all likelihood be posted in the Rajya Sabha as has been planned by the Congress party high command. He will however campaign extensively for his party throughout the country and will play a key role to dissolve the knots that have altered his party’s fortunes in the past electoral frays. Chidambaram is particularly preparing to answer the grave economic issues raised by opposition parties against the governmental policies that had been undertaken by UPA-II leading to widespread inflation. He is gearing up to erase the rising discontentment against his Congress party from the voters of the country due to their scan ridden sojourn. However Chidambaram’s withdrawal from fighting the elections has set tongues wagging within his own party itself. It is popularly believed that Chidambaram has handed over Sivaganga to Chidambaram Junior, Karti to save himself from an abject...

Shiv Sena contestents for polls

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray announced their list of Lok Sabha contestants yesterday on February 9, 2014. He reiterated his party’s total support for the Bharatiya Janata Party and rooted for Modi as PM of India. Raj’s declaration came when he was addressing his party workers on the eighth foundation day of his party at the Shanmukhananda hall in Mumbai. Names of seven MNS candidates are Member of Legislative Assembly Bala Nandgaonkar contesting from Mumbai South seat, Aditya Shirodkar from Mumbai South Central, actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar from Mumbai North-West, Raju Patil from Kalyan-Dombivli, Ashok Khandebharad from Shirur, Dr Pradeep Pawar from Nashik and Deepak Paigude from...

Seven stars shine on Trinamul ticket

The polls for the West Bengal Lok Sabha contests are rather going to be star studded affair as far as the green horn stars nominated the Trinamul candidates are concerned. This has become such an issue as the Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee seems to have fielded 7 first time star candidates for the various clashes among the 42 seats at stake. The Ghatal parliamentary constituency has actor Dev or Dipak Adhikary while Bankura will see actress Moon Moon Sen while both had been won by the Left in the 2009 elections. Another yesteryear actress Sandhya Roy will fight at Midnapore. Two singers Indranil Sen and Soumitra Roy will combat for the Behrampore and Malda (North) constituencies respectively. Theater personality Arpita Ghosh will be seen contesting for winning the Balurghat constituency in 2014 as the Trinmaul had lost it to the left by a rather short margin of 5000 votes in 2009. Former footballer Bhaichung Bhutia will be looking to wrest the Darjeeling seat from Jaswant Singh who had won this seat for the BJP and Gorkha Jannukti Morcha combine in the last Lok Sabha polls held in...