PC's great Indian rope trick

AIADMK's imperious chief Jayalalithaa doesn't quite know what to make of the explanation her nominee for P Chidambaram's Sivaganga seat, Raja Kannappan, offered after his narrow defeat in the elections. Kannappan was leading from the beginning and with each round of counting, he increased his margin.

Later, he was to tell Jayalalithaa that by the afternoon, when he had piled up a handsome lead of some 20,000 votes over Chidambaram and there were just a handful of EVMs left to count, he decided he could afford to take it easy. A dispirited Chidambaram and his son-cum-election manager had left the counting centre.

Kannappan too decided to slip away and go to his wife's Samadhi for thanksgiving. He was gone for two hours, long enough for the picture to alter completely. By the time he returned, Chidambaram had already demanded and got a recount and was declared winner by a little over 3,000 votes.

He was taken to a room at the back and handed his victory certificate, after which he quietly drove away without meeting the large crowd of reporters and Congress supporters waiting outside.

It will remain a mystery why Kannappan chose to disappear at a crucial point in the counting when he was just a few EVMs away from victory. AIADMK circles smell something fishy but after such a comprehensive defeat in Tamil Nadu, even Jayalalithaa doesn't seem to have the heart for a confrontation with either Chidambaram or his friend-in-arms, M K Alagiri, who is the DMK's rising star in south TN. 

No-one was more surprised than LK Advani by the BJP's comprehensive election defeat. His aides and the party's in-house psephologist had led him to believe that he was well on his way to becoming the next prime minister. It was clearly wish fulfillment but Advani was so convinced that he laid on a lavish celebratory lunch for 150 persons at his residence on counting day and asked for a couple of lakhs of rupees worth of firecrackers to be bought for a big bang show in the evening.

By mid-morning, it was clear which way the wind was blowing. Some of Advani's guests did turn up, but to commiserate, not congratulate. And they stayed but briefly. In the end, only about 10 persons, mostly his close aides who are almost like family, ate the lunch that was wilting in the stifling heat and the depression-filled atmosphere. The fireworks were quietly removed, no-one knows where. It will be quite a while before the party has something to celebrate.
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TAILPIECE
Congresswallahs are so much in awe of 10 Janpath that they don't dare say boo to even the trees. Certainly not to staff members, whether they be powerful office managers like Sonia Gandhi's trusted private secretaries Madhavan and Pillai or lowly peons and gatekeepers. One such peon who shall remain unnamed was happily lording it over young MPs and aspiring ministers, some of who were overheard adding the suffix ``ji'' to his name and speaking almost reverentially to him.

He was their lifeline during those critical days of ministry-formation, supplying them tidbits of information about the goings-on at 10 Janpath. In return, he wanted a quota of rooms reserved for him in the servants' quarter area of the Lutyens Delhi bungalows that come as the perks of office. In a city where accommodation is in short supply, a room in the service area of a Lutyen's bungalow is prime real estate.