Lok Sabha and Assembly polls: Tamil Nadu surpasses Gujarat in cash seizures

A ‘real’ brother-in-law

Nakul Nath, the son of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, is contesting from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency. Sanjay Singh Masani is a regular face in his election rallies. Masani is the brother-in-law of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Nath introduces him as thus: "Yeh aapke nakli mama ke asli sale hain" (he is the real brother-in-law of your fake uncle). From being called "paon paon wale bhaiya" (foot soldier), Chouhan came to be addressed as "mama" (maternal uncle) by the children in the state. For his part, Masani joined the Congress before the Assembly elections and contested the Waraseoni Assembly seat on the party ticket. He lost to independent candidate Pradeep Jaiswal. Jaiswal is now cabinet minister in the state government.

 
Rs 15 lakh vs surgical strike

The former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and Congress candidate from Bhopal, Digvijaya Singh (pictured), was addressing a public gathering in the Berasia locality of the state capital when he targeted the government at the Centre for what he termed were its "fake promises". He asked the people gathered if any one of them had received the Rs 15 lakh promised by the incumbent government. A young man from the crowd who raised his hand was called by Singh on the stage. The Congress leader even said that the youth would be honoured publicly if he was able to prove that he had received the money and handed over the microphone to him. The youth began by waxing eloquent about the surgical strike against Pakistan undertaken by the government. A visibly embarrassed Singh signalled to some Congress workers who dragged the youth away. In no time, a video of the episode went viral on social media.

 
Dubious distinction

Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have traditionally been engaged in healthy competition to project an investment-friendly image by assuring ease of doing business and attracting industries to set up shop in the state among other things. But these two states have found themselves competing for an unwanted record of late. Tamil Nadu has surpassed all other states in the country, including Gujarat, while unintentionally chasing this record. We are talking about the total value of cash seizures related to the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly by-polls in the state. Till Monday, the amount stood at Rs 935.54 crore in Tamil Nadu while Gujarat is at number 2 with seizures worth Rs 545.29 crore. If in Gujarat drugs and narcotics worth Rs 524 crore formed the biggest chunk of the seizures, in Tamil Nadu it was precious metals worth Rs 708.69 crore. The National Capital Territory of Delhi came third with seizures at Rs 395.71 crore so far.