IN Orissa, Pradesh Congress Committee president J B Patnaik in his resurrected avtar as the undisputed boss of the party almost engineered a political housebreak into the house of colleague and representative from Koraput and former Union Minister Girdhar Gomang. The six-time elected veteran from Koraput was said to be in dismay when the ticket for the Lok Sabha was sought to be granted to none other than his wife Hema Gomang by J B Patnaik. That made the fight between husband and wife very crucial indeed. Similarly, JB also lured Nandan Biswal to contest for the Lok Sabha. Finally, it was said that Girdhar Gomang’s loud protests were heard in New Delhi and he was given the Lok Sabha seat from his own constituency and his wife would now contest for the assembly constituency.

M.S. Gill, former election commissioner of India, finally made it to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab during the March poll to the Upper House of Parliament on Congress ticket but not before his heart missed many a beat. The man who was once the master of the destiny of the political parties and could pull up the highest and the mightiest in the political arena for electoral misconduct and procedural failures, himself had a tough time while filing his nomination to the RS. His choice, said to have been made by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi herself, was clouded with uncertainty when he approached the election authorities in Punjab with incomplete nomination papers. One was expected to know that it is compulsory for filing such a nomination to enclose a certified copy of an affidavit to ensure that the person concerned is on the voter’ roll, with particulars of his name and number and the place where he is registered on the voter list. The former Chief Election Commissioner reached the State Election Office with his nomination papers minus the voter list affidavit of his enrolment number. The dummy candidate, Punjab Pradesh Congress president H.S. Hanspal had filed his covering candidate paper in perfect order. When Gill saw that the affidavit lacunae might get his nomination rejected and the covering candidate might walk into Rajya Sabha in his place, he sent a distress call to Congress headquarters in New Delhi. Ambika Soni was said to have assured him help and asked him to keep his cool. Finally, his enrolment affidavit was rushed from New Delhi and hour before the deadline to ensure that one who had been nicknamed "The Paratrooper" by the Punjab Congressmen, could finally move into the Rajya Sabha. When Gill grumbled and complained it was pointed out to him that now he was not in CEC but under the tutelage of CWC - not the boss of the Central Election Commission but a faithful subordinate of the Congress Working Committee.

THE roar of BJP lion Atal Behari Vajpayee from Patiala on March 18, the insiders say, made Sonia Gandhi sweat. She was worried and wanted to know where was the Maharaja of Patiala, Captain Amarinder Singh, when the lion, challenging Congress, was roaring? Where is the Prince? She asked again and again. He was not in Patiala. He was not in Chandigarh. He was not in New Delhi. Then where was he? Finally, they found out. He had gone on the pilgrimage with his family members to the temple of goddess Chintapurni, the one who removes worries and grants boons. Perhaps he had gone there to pray for his political future. But did he not fear the wrath of the political goddess who presided over the destinies of Congressmen? Who knows for whom the bell tolls?