High security

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot (pictured), who is in Uttar Pradesh to coordinate the election management of his party for the assembly polls, is surprised at the security paraphernalia around him. Gehlot says he didn’t have such an elaborate security even when he was the chief minister of his state from 1998 to 2003, and again from 2008 to 2013, and certainly no “pilot” vehicle that blared a siren and led his official car. But all of this is available not just to Gehlot, but to all former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, and those visiting during the poll season from other states.