Self Service

In this election, political parties are learning a new lesson: take too long to decide on a candidate and your favourite might switch sides.

In this election, political parties are learning a new lesson: take too long to decide on a candidate and your favourite might switch sides.

Nafisa Ali, the Samajwadi Party’s replacement for Sanjay Dutt from Lucknow, has declared that the reason for ditching the Congress is the simple fact that the grand old party took too long to decide. The Congress was actively considering her name for the seat, but apparently could not take a decision fast enough. So Ali approached her “very old friend” Amar Singh and lo, the switch happened  immediately. Ali, who contested the last Lok Sabha election for the Congress against Mamata Banerjee (now a Congress ally), now thinks that the party is full of sycophants. In Allahabad, too, the Congress has a  turncoat among its ranks. The party’s candidate, Shyam Krishna Pandey, threw a surprise at his parent  party, the BJP, by bagging the Congress ticket. Pandey left many of his wellwishers in the saffron party red-faced when the Congress declared his name from the river town. In neighbouring Bihar, the Congress has fielded three candidates who had earlier sworn allegiance to the RJD. And party chief Lalu Prasad’s brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav leads the pack.