inisters of little helphe Maharajganj bypoll saw carpet-bombing of Union ministers Sachin Pilot, Rajiv Shukla, RPN Singh and Jitendra Singh but the state Congress leaders feel it would not change the fate of the party in Bihar. Most of these ministers and cine star Raj Babbar gave a fleeting appearance in the constituency. Their audience was their own securitymen and supporters of the Congress candidate, Jitendra Swami. After addressing them, they went through the ritual of taking part in news meets. Each one of them claimed before the reporters that the Congress candidate would win and rushed to New Delhi,” said a veteran Congress leader. He said carpet-bombing of Union ministers was a feature in the last Assembly polls also, but the Congress’s performance was a disaster. “We should concentrate on building our vote bank instead of parachute-dropping ministers just before an election,” he said.ost-poll shufflen administrative shake-up after a bypoll is common. The Maharajganj Lok Sabha bypoll over, a rumour on “massive shuffle” of IAS and IPS officers is doing the rounds. If sources are to be believed, names of about 17 IAS officers and 16 IPS officers have been shortlisted for transfer to key posts. “In all likelihood, these shortlisted officers would remain in their posts till the Lok Sabha polls. Ruling parties believe winning elections is easier when favourable district magistrates and superintendents of police are in charge. Therefore, this round of postings would be caste oriented,” said a senior officer. Even during the Lalu-Rabri days, IAS and IPS officers of some castes were shunted out of districts before the polls. The trend continues.lassy touch to grafthe recovery of Rs 20 crore assets from just four state government officials last week had tongues wagging. “We found a pressure cooker made of silver from the residence of one of the officials,” said a police officer, adding that palatial buildings, jewellery and sports utility vehicles no longer surprised them. Recently, a senior officer approached a lady interior designer to get his residence decked up. When the officer disclosed his budget, the lady was unimpressed. “I have worked in the residence of a junior official of your department. His budget was 10 times higher,” the lady told the astonished officer. The usage of bribe money is getting “classy”, remarked another police officer.rong choicehe JD(U) camp did not sound confident a day after the bypoll in Maharajganj. Analysing what went wrong, a JD(U) minister said: “We selected a candidate (education minister P.K. Shahi) of wrong caste. Second, the high-handedness of the RJD candidate, Prabhunath Singh, could prove detrimental to us. He roughed up a police officer, scaring poor voters,” said the minister, insisting that domineering behaviour helps in elections at times. “Prabhunath is notorious for roughing up the government officials. Perhaps we should have had a candidate who could match him,” the minister said, adding that elections were not a gentleman’s game.