Pratibha's clouded campaign

CHATTERBOX

Every morning, poll managers of presidential nominee Pratibha Patil wake up and scan the skies to see which way the monsoon clouds are headed. They have already had to revise her itinerary several times as the monsoon has been playing havoc in the western and southern states and she has just embarked on her campaign. In contrast, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has been travelling intensively for eight months now and has already completed much of his campaigning in the states. And here's more on Patil's travel. Election Commission rules stipulate that no government machinery is to be used in the campaign travel of a presidential candidate-it is the party that is required to pick up the tab, although a nominee can accept invitations for breakfast, tea, lunch and dinner from the state governments. The Congress Party has hired an aircraft for Patil which she is using for travel, accompanied by Congress General Secretary Jayanthi Natarajan, who has been handpicked for the job of being her assistant. Mostly, we understand, Natarajan's job is to make sure Patil talks as little as possible.

President of MPs/Mlas?

"People's president?" snorted Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee at a strategy meeting recently, at his acerbic best. "Let us be clear. Those who vote for the president of India are not the people. They are MPs and MLAs who are intensely political. So there is no such thing as a people's president. It is all in the numbers, get the numbers and you can get the president elected. Let us work on that instead of raising imaginary issues."