Stuttering made loyalists think
When Sunetra Pawar, wife of NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who recently filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha by-polls, was asked questions by journalists, NCP minister Aditi Tatkare, who was standing near her, prompted all the answers to her. Sunetra, while thanking Ajit Pawar, stuttered before taking his name. Whether the stutter was because she forgot who the party president was or because in a few traditional Maharashtrian families the wives still do not call their husband by name, remains unknown. Whatever it was, the stutter led to some laughter among the NCP cadres gathered around Sunetra.
Think before you speak
Congress’ landslide victory in the Karnataka assembly polls last year gave rise to a fierce intra-party competition for the CM’s post. KPCC president DK Shivakumar had his hopes dashed as Siddaramaiah overtook him in the race. A deeply upset DK Suresh (Shivakumar’s brother) — the lone Congress MP in the state from the 2019 LS polls — publicly announced that he may retire from electoral politics, which analysts saw as a veiled threat to the party leadership. However, come 2024, the three-time MP contested yet again, only to lose to BJP’s debutant cardiologist candidate by 2.69 lakh votes. In democracy, as in life, it behoves us to be very careful what we wish for — the voters might just be listening, and retirement could be just around the corner.
