Lucknow residents have a tough decision to make. If they choose Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as they probably will, and if the National Democratic Alliance forms the next government under him, as it well might, the prestige of being the PM's constituency is enormous. However, it means that their MP won't be able to spend any time in Lucknow, as many residents feel was the case during the last Lok Sabha when Vajpayee was too busy with national affairs. So although they all say they will vote for Vajpayee, they also complain about the lack of development in Lucknow. And the neglect of Lucknow in terms of civic amenities is fairly obvious. The roads are full of potholes, residents complain of water shortage, for transport you have to choose between buses or rickety cycle-rickshaws, etc etc. Vajpayee, who is standing for the seventh time from the city, may have noticed these problems. But another one was brought home quite forcefully to him, when during the puja performed at the BJP office to start his campaign, the electricity failed thrice. And had local party workers running helter-skelter to turn on a generator brought specifically for that eventuality. The Congress hasn't yet announced its candidate for the Lucknow seat, which gives the BJP leaders in the city the carte blanche to say the Congress hasn't been able to find anyone to fight what must be a "losing battle". Congressmen, for their part, hold that the delay is only because they want to wreak proper revenge for the BJP's sneaking Sushma Swaraj to Bellary to fight their leader Sonia Gandhi. And they want time to plan that revenge. Speculation has thrown up the names of Dr Karan Singh, Niloufer Vishnu Bhagwat, and Narain Dutt Tiwari. Of course local party workers hold out for the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi, who is fast becoming the party's star campaigner, contesting. But the prospects of Priyanka agreeing are small. The candidate might be a dark horse, however. Sources point to a Muslim lady who is a professor at Lucknow University, who will fight the election on local issues, will appeal to women and the minorities, and will try her best to give the BJP in Lucknow a run for its money. Priyanka, incidentally, is going to come to Amethi when her mother files her nomination on Friday, September 10. She will stay on even after Sonia leaves, to keep the campaign going. After her success in Bellary, she has been persuaded to be her mother's campaign manager for the Amethi election, scheduled for October 3. The BJP.nominee here is the sitting MP, Sanjay Singh. His campaign manager is his second wife, Ameeta, who has been camping there for over a month now. She is confident of Singh's chances against the Gandhi bahu, but to ensure that extra bit of luck in the election, she says her husband will file his nomination at the astrologically correct time, one full day before Sonia. The reason is the date is the only one of its kind in the century: 9.9.99 In the last election Sanjay Singh defeated Captain Satish Sharma, who went around saying he was merely holding the fort (the khadaos or shoes, a la King Bharat in the Ramayana), until the Gandhis chose to come and claim Amethi. Although the Amethi residents didn't bite the khadao bit and defeated him, he has been awarded the Rae Bareily seat this time. He will be fighting Arun Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi's estranged cousin, who has crossed over to the BJP. The captain, who it may be recalled was rumoured to have imported Italian marble for his swimming pool many years ago, is known around here as the 'five-star MP.' This is because he has a habit of flying into the constituency for the day, and then zipping off the same evening, without giving his voters much chance of describing their woes. I managed to catch him at the Amausi airport after one such "flying visit". Surrounded by security guards and Congress party workers, he checked in at the executive class counter with his daughter, and -- wait for this -- his faithful pug dog! Suhasini Haider returns to these pages after having her second daughter, Maya Meher.
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