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Kalmadi in enemy camp
What better place to make a political appeal than a vegetable market, with its ever-available audience of traders and customers.
What better place to make a political appeal than a vegetable market, with its ever-available audience of traders and customers.
Suresh Kalmadi, Congress candidate from Pune Lok Sabha constituency, knows this only too well. He sets out at the crack of dawn, clad in a crisp white kurta-pyjama, and wades through the slush and muck of Pune's main fruit and vegetable market — the Chhatrapati Shivaji market.
"Politics in Pune begins here," he tells HT as he sets a brisk pace, holding the prototype of an electronic voting machine in hand.
Pune has the largest number of candidates in the fray (22) and two EVMs will be deployed here on April 26. This is also an auspicious day for weddings and many people have more than one to attend.
"You don't have to look hard for my name and symbol. I am on top at number one. I will make Pune the number one city. So before you go to that wedding, make a detour to the polling booth and punch the button at the top," he exhorts traders.
The market has Marathas, Dalits, OBCs and Muslims in large numbers — and Kalmadi is expecting all of them to vote for him.
He admits the upper castes and Brahmins are most likely to vote for the BJP, but anything is worth a try. So, he attempts to breach even this fortress. "If (Pradeep) Rawat walks these streets, no one will even recognize him,'' he says. Rawat is the sitting BJP MP pitted against Kalmadi, who is the bigger celebrity.
Kalmadi is also banking on Opposition unity this time — Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party is ranged behind him as are the Republican Party of India and the Janata Dal.
But there is no harm in trying to break into enemy lines. So with just a week to go for polling, Kalmadi instructs his workers that "the time for rallies is over… I now want you to go door-to-door and go into the Shiv Sena and BJP wards''.
He himself plunges into slums in an open tempo and, halfway through, filmstar Zeenat Aman hops aboard and the crowds go ecstatic.
Through it all, Kalmadi underscores to the people that he is a man of his word. "I do not promise the moon, but I keep whatever promises I make. You have seen this in the past. Vote for me, help me win not just by ten or twenty thousand votes but by a margin of a lakh or two and I will make Pune the number one city.''
