Editor's Byte

When in doubt trust the bookies. While pundits and psephologists are groping in the dark, the bookies (I don’t know why most of them are based in Gujarat) have a clear favourite in Election 2009. According to them, the Congress has its nose just in front and could touch the 140 mark. Congressmen and Congresswomen, in moments of candour, admit that the last two weeks have been terrible. Their erstwhile allies are hitting back with vengeance. Where will it stop? 

Lalu has fantasies about the top job in Delhi, so does Sharad Pawar. If the Congress returns as the single largest party, how are Messrs Lalu and Pawar going to achieve their ambitions? Conventional wisdom holds that any party with around 30 seats can blackmail the Congress, not just about support but about the PM’s chair. Is that possible? 

The BJP seems to be recovering its poise after the Varun Gandhi nonsense. This is such a calculated, brazen and cynical ploy by the mother and son duo for the latter toemerge as the "real" Hindutva icon, that I am surprised the lad’s antics are being taken so seriously. 

Mr Advani has carefully and diligently plotted the BJP’s new governance profile. I hope Varun does not hijack Advani’s sensible agenda. 

Is television responsible for creating Varun Gandhi as the BJP’s latest poster boy? I don’t think so. The reporting and the endless debates may have added marginally to his charisma, but he is his own creation. A senior BJP leader confessed to me that the party was taken completely by surprise by Varun’s dangerous gambit. 

Tailpiece: A reporter once asked the late British prime minister, Harold Macmillan what he feared most in politics. "Events dear boy, events," replied the crafty old statesman. The Varun event is testimony to that insight.