Bangalore: Elections in India have always been colourful though Election Commission edicts have taken out a lot of the fun in recent years. While many see the commission’s work as a welcome attempt to clean up electoral politics, those who make a living from making and selling banners, buntings, caps, key chains and other election related parapharenalia, say they have been hit hard.
Meanwhile, wily politicians in Karnataka, which goes to polls starting 10 May, continue to try and woo the voters in any which way possible, including, and especially, by appeasing gods and astrologers by grazing sheep to walking on fire. Astrologers, in particular, are in great demand, to determine the most opportune time and day to file a nomination to the direction in which they should start each day’s campaign.
In the quest for power, brothers are pitted against brothers and other old family feuds are being passed down from generation to generation. Here are some vignettes from the election battle.
That sheepish look
Promissory note: (L to R) Congress leaders Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chauhan, C.K. Jaffer Sharief, Mallikarjun Kharge and Dharam Singh releasing the party manifesto in Bangalore on Thursday. The first round of polling to the state assembly is to be held on 10 May.
Politicians in north Karnataka are literally taking to shepherding. No, they aren’t changing their profession. They have taken to sheep grazing as they believe it brings luck in elections. Basavaraj Bommai, son of former chief minister S.R. Bommai, was among the north Karnataka politicians who became a “shepherd” for a day to ensure lady luck smiled on them. And these aren’t ordinary sheep we are talking about—come from a flock managed for a local mystic known as Balu Mamma, who has been credited with miraculous powers. Even after his death—about 100 years ago—he apparently continues to bless devotees who took care of his flock, which today has grown to 17,000 sheep.
“Why just me, even Sharad Pawar (Union agriculture minister) does this,” says Bommai. “I am not doing this for electoral luck but rather for lok kalyan (people’s welfare).” Bommai, for one, needs all the luck he can accumulate. He’s contesting after a gap of 14 years from Shiggaon as a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ironically, Bommai’s father was vehemently opposed to the BJP.
Walking on fire