Politics first for doctor leaders

Kalika Prasad Singh, the doctor who fought the Doranda bypoll on a Congress ticket, levelled serious charges against senior party leaders for allegedly sabotaging his chances in the contest. Some party leaders, however, feel Singh contested the bypoll like a doctor and not a politician. “When I went to Doranda, the candidate showed me a list of names of villagers in the Assembly segment on a laptop and claimed that all the voters were his patients and would surely vote for him. He ended up getting less than 5,000 votes. It appears that his patients ditched him,” said a senior Congress leader, insisting that medical practice and politics are two different fields. ihar has seen a number of doctor politicians, including state BJP chief C.P. Thakur, Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad, former BJP MLA Vinod Yadav and former Congless MLA Ashok Ram. “However, if you want to win an election, you will have to forget you are a doctor and start behaving like a hardcore politician,” suggested a successful doctor-turned-politician.

Postal hurdles

Recently, the state government received a letter from the Centre directing it to ensure distribution of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to all the farmers by October 15. “We received the letter on October 30,” said an official, wondering why in the cyber age, the Union government was still sending its directives through post. “This problem is there with all the departments. I wonder if the officials of the Union government are serious about the directions given to the states,” he said. Some officials complained they have even received letters from the Centre after a gap of three months. “The same thing happens when letters travel from the state headquarters to districts,” conceded another official.

Campaigners’ dilemma

A senior Congress leader was reluctant to campaign for the party candidate in the Lokaha constituency where a bypoll is scheduled on November 30. “I had a bitter experience in the last Assembly polls when I was asked to campaign for the party candidate. The candidate had not taken the permission from the district administration for holding a public meeting,” he recalled, insisting that it makes “star campaigners” vulnerable to cases under violation of the model code of conduct. This is not confined to the Congress only. “Every time I go for campaigning in the elections, I come to know after six months that I am facing four to five cases for violation of model code of conduct. This happens because local candidate or his/her agent does not take the permission from the local authority,” said a senior BJP leader.

Race for best report card

Chief minister Nitish Kumar is busy finalising the report card his government is scheduled to issue on November 25 on the occasion of the completion of one year of the NDA-II. “Recently, the chief minister spoke to a principal secretary about the achievements of his department and gave him instructions on what to include in the annual report card,” said a source. However, Nitish will not be the only one to release a report card. The RJD is also preparing its report card against the Nitish government. “It’s becoming an annual ritual — government report card vs the RJD report card — with both sides ridiculing each other,” said a senior politician. In 2010, when the NDA-I was presenting its last report card, the RJD came out with a well-printed and better-written report card than the government. “But the document did little to change the RJD’s political fortunes,” said a JD(U) leader.