While ex-royals all over the country are in the thick of the political action, the former maharaja of Kozhikode, the Zamorin P K S Raja doesn't even have a vote. And the 91-year-old Zamorin, who once ruled the whole of the Malabar, has no complaint either.
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When candidates queue up before his modest palace to seek his blessings and vote he reminds them politely of the fact: "Sorry, don't waste your precious time. I am not a voter here."
Raja was a voter once, but when he started shuttling between Chennai and the Gulf, his name was deleted from the voters' list.
As the news spread, several officials and leaders rushed to his palace with the voter enrolment form. But he gently refused to entertain their eleventh-hour pleas. "It does not mean that I don't believe in elections. I have no political inclination. But I bless everyone with success," Raja says.
Ramesh Babu is HT’s bureau chief in Kerala, with about three decades of experience in journalism.
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