‘They will ride on a donkey if it helps in getting votes’

ludhiana: dr jarnail singh grewal, the bsp hopeful from qila raipur constituency, has an uncanny talent for riding high on poll fever raging in the state. knowing fully well that with stalwarts crowding the poll arena, he really needs something spectacular to stand out, he has decided to ride high on the back of the elephant. pre-empting the victory march, as it were.this fancy royal ride which he faithfully does every day has earned him high marks in visibilty sweepstakes, although the people here are extremely amused by the gimmicks the politicians are resorting to. he is,however, not the only one rehashing quasi-comic spectacles to excite the jaded voters. ajit singh, the panthic morcha candidate for ludhiana (east), has been carrying on his grand campaigning atop a bullock cart.the symbol of the shromani akali dal (mann), which the panthic morcha had adopted later, the bullock cart is being used as the campaigning vehicle with a great deal of flourish. there are yet others for whom spinning on the symbol is not necessarily an inspiration. malkiat singh dakha, the congress candidate from dakha constituency, had a volley of tongas all lined up for a huge rally this week. designed as eye-catching thrills to tempt the fleeting attention of the voter, these novel ways of campaigning are not without their flipside. as one jagga of gopalpur in qila raipur constituency puts it: ‘‘no doubt they leave an impression, but then dr. jarnail singh is covering far less area each day as compared to the jet speed adopted by other campaigners of the constituency.’’ he is simultaneously bemused and befuddled by ‘‘this candidate on the elephant’’ who has stubbornly stayed perched on his elephant, and rarely gets off this majestic pachyderm once he hits the campaign trial. his logic defies him as the animal would cost him no less than the car, and cover no more than half a dozen villages a day. others are, however, not prepared to be all that generous.amritpal, who lives in bhanora village of the dakha constituency, is unsparing in his indictment of ‘‘comic antics’’ of politicians. says a cynical amritpal:‘‘if we were to say that our villages sacred animal is donkey, these politicians would not think twice before mounting on one for campaigning, except they all vanish after they win the elections.’’ those wishing to be enligtened further, he added that his village had weighed rajinder kaur ballara thrice in coins in the lok sabha elections earlier, but she was ‘‘arrogant and indifferent’’ when some of our villagers went to her at the time of need. call it a politics of symbols when it comes to the final crunch.