PUNE, February 23: ``Haat ko kaant do, ghadi ko yaad karo,'' (cut the hand, remember the clock) appeals Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party sponsored independent candidate Suresh Kalmadi in a last-minute effort to erase the Congress symbol from the minds of voters belonging to the poor-illiterate sections.Kalmadi has been following a punishing schedule during the last phase of his election campaign, targeting those sections whose votes are most likely to be taken for granted by his rival Congressmen. On Sunday, Kalmadi accompanied by former Congress leader B P Maurya, addresses rallies of various communities like the Mehetar Valmiki, Muslim Chhaparbandh, Kunbi and other backward castes, considered traditional Congress vote banks.
Kalmadi cleverly exploits the injured sentiments of the Mehetar Valmiki community members over the denial of ticket by the Congress to their national leader Sardar Buta Singh.
He tries to impress upon them that he and Buta Singh are sailing in the same boat, fightingagainst the injustice meted out to them by the Congress leadership. ``I have not joined the BJP.
But I am committed to supporting a government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee,'' he reiterates while adding that he fully agrees with Vajpayee's speech delivered before the Parliament during his short stint as the prime minister. This should be the basis of a common minimum programme on which he and like-minded independents would support a BJP government, says Kalmadi.He urges the gathering of Mehetar Valmiki community gathered at the Nehru Memorial Hall to stand by him. ``Justice would be done to you. The Congress has only played on your emotions all these years.'' The gathering hears patiently having waited for over a couple of hours for Kalmadi's arrival. An orchestra keeps them entertained with rendition of Hindi film songs.
Later, addressing a rally of the Muslim Chhaparbandh community in a slum locality at Mangalwar Peth, Kalmadi refers to Sharad Pawar's allegation that many corporators and activists wereobliged by him. ``It is sad that a leader of the stature of Sharad Pawar should make such allegations against me.''
Kalmadi tries to evoke the self-respect among the slum dwellers saying that every person, regardless of his financial status, had a mind of his own. He cannot be influenced by money. But there can be an influencing bond between a `neta' and his followers, he tells the gathering. Later, addressing rallies of the Kunbi and other backward castes, Suresh Kalmadi alerts the gathering against Congress leaders' alleged attempts to misguide the electorate by distributing his old pamphlets printed during the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, which he fought on a Congress Party ticket. ``You may mistake the hand as my symbol. It is not my symbol now. What is my symbol?'' Kalmadi makes the gathering proclaim their support to his clock at least three times before winding up.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
