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Laloo adds spicein ChhattisgarhRaipur: RJD chiefLaloo Prasad Yadavwas in Korba the oth-er day and he made nobones about his visit,candidly admitting hewas seeking votes forhis friend Ajit Jogi.

He impressed theaudience with hisinimitable style whenat Ambikapu, he ad-vised people not to gettoo close to his chop-per as the rotor maycut their necks. TNN

All it takes is 10 bucks to getsupport and votes in BastarJagdalpur: Making peo-ple listen to netas comescheap here. You don’t evenneed buses to ferry them tothe rallies. Large lorriesdo the job. And the peopleare lucky to be paid Rs 10per listening.

Welcome to Bastar, oneof the poorest regions inthe country. There is onlyone crop of paddy here.Even those with 10 acres ofland, probably the biggestlandholders, go to others’fields during harvest time and are paidRs 10 for cutting the crop and Rs 25 forbundling it.

‘‘Even if they can do without this Rs10, they cannot afford to hire labour ata higher rate from elsewhere for theirown fields. So, harvesting becomes a

communal affair,’’ saysHilurius Ekka, a teacher.

Contrary to the popularperception of an impene-trable jungle, Bastar hashuge tracts of plains with-out forest cover. And whatought to be fertile land liesfallow for want of waterfrom December till thestart of the next monsoon.Barely 5% of farmers cul-tivate vegetables. For therest of the year, they de-pend on menial labour.

Damrudhar, a local, wraps up theelectioneering issue saying: ‘‘Whoeverspends money gets votes. There is nobondage with the Congress. In fact, re-cently, local BJP workers have beenhelping us and that would definitelycount.’’ — Rajesh Ramachandran

BJP targets Diggy, JogiNew Delhi: A numberof political delegationsvisited the ElectionCommission office onThursday with com-plaints about their ri-vals misusing officialmachinery.

The most important— though the last — tomake their representa-tion before the EC’smembers was the oneled by BJP general sec-retary Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi which alleged vi-olation of the modelcode of conduct by Con-gress chief ministers of

Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh, DigvijaySingh and Ajit Jogi.

Earlier, J K Jain, one-time BJP leader, metthe EC and alleged thata reporter of his TVchannel was beaten upunder the orders ofBJP’s chief ministerialcandidate VasundharaRaje in Rajasthan’s Jha-lawar district, that too,in her presence.

The first delegationto come calling was oneof DMK leaders whocomplained to the ECabout malpractices by

the Jayalalithaa gov-ernment in the annualrevision of electoralrolls in Tamil Nadu.

Emerging out of themeeting, Naqvi told re-porters the BJP delega-tion, comprising VijayKumar Malhotra, BalApte and others, had awide-ranging discus-sion.

‘‘But we especiallydrew the EC’s attentionto the terror tactics em-ployed by the MP andChhattisgarh govern-ments in threateningvoters,’’ he said. TNN

Congress expresses faith in LyngdohNew Delhi: Despitestrictures and actionsordered by the ElectionCommission againstthe state governmentsrun by it, the Congresson Thursday expressedfull confidence that theDecember 1 polls wouldbe ‘‘free and fair’’.

‘‘Is the BJP trying to

question the credibilityof the EC?’’ spokesmanAnand Sharma coun-tered when asked if theBJP delegation meetingthe CEC and other com-missioners was tryingto put pressure on thepoll body.

The EC has repeated-ly pulled up the admin-

istrations in MadhyaPradesh and Chhattis-garh and has also ac-cused Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi ofusing the Chhattisgarhgovernment aircraft forpoll campaign — acharge denied by thelatter — in violation ofthe code of conduct. TNN

Uma Bharti hugs a little baby during her campaign inKamalpur on Thursday.

PTI

Neelabh