Pole, not poll, shock

Pondicherry: Even before the polls are underway, Jayalalithaa’s party was in for some shock. Literally.

A 19-year-old ADMK worker suffered an electric shock while tying a festoon to a post on Wednesday to welcome the Tamil Nadu chief minister.

He was admitted to a local government hospital and later shifted to Chennai for advanced treatment. A generous Amma lost no time in sanctioning Rs 15,000 for the youth’s treatment.

Seshan’s choice

Madurai: If there is a certain winner in the polls, according to T.N. Seshan, it’s got to be the electronic voting machines.

Addressing a meet-the-press programme on Wednesday, the former chief election commissioner said the machines — introduced during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime — would work even if somebody were to stamp on them.

Throwing in a dose of humour, Seshan said some candidates had been telling voters in villages to press the button against their symbol, otherwise they would suffer an electric shock. But, there’s no need to worry. Not only are the machines foolproof, the voters are too, he added.

Fair is not foul

Hyderabad: It is not for nothing that Chandrababu Naidu has gone all out to win over women. They outnumber men voters in Andhra Pradesh.

Of the total electorate of 5,10,33,003 registered till January 2004, the number of women voters is 2,57,40,128 — an increase of over 8.79 lakh over the 1999 figure. There are 4.5 lakh more women voters against 2,52,89,905 men this time.

Naidu is confident of garnering the support of the fairer sex as he had set up lakhs of women self-help groups to improve their living condition in rural areas. The Congress is also trying to woo them by promising more funds for women’s groups.

Red rush

Calcutta: With so much happening on the poll front, can the CPM in Bengal be left behind? For the first time, the party is sponsoring a 40-minute feature film as part of its campaign for the general elections.

State CPM secretary Anil Biswas said the film — Rangamatir Path — was being directed by prominent filmmaker Tarun Majumdar and the shoot — underway in Birbhum — would be over by April 18.

“We will distribute CDs of the film as part of our election campaign,” Biswas said, adding the CPM would also launch street theatre campaigns.