NAMESAKES
It’s the oldest trick in the book, but hosting namesakes to confound voters evidently still works. In West Delhi, AAP’s famous ‘shoeman’ Jarnail Singh insists the two Independent Jarnail Singhs in the fray are ‘dummies’ propped up by rival parties. Interestingly, both namesakes applied for the ‘torch’ as their poll symbol and have listed 22 grams of gold worth Rs 70,000 each in their affidavits, suspiciously prepared by one Mithilesh Agarwala. There’s more…
In Hisar, Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi shares his first name with, believe it or not, seven Independents. Bishnoi possibly has more to fear from his namesakes than from rival Indian National Lok Dal candidate Dushyant Chautala or AAP’s Yudhbir Khayalia.
In Maval, a constituency in Maharashtra, the Peasants and Workers Party nominee Lakshaman Pandurang Jagtap faces two independents with identical first and last names. Shiv Sena nominee Shrirang Chandu Barne, too, is going through a bit of an identity crisis with his JD(U) rival Shrirang Chimaji Barne.
At Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh, suspicious eyes turned on Congress maverick Ajit Jogi after 11 Independents, all with names curiously similar to BJP nominee Chandulal Sahu, cropped up. Five of them are ‘Chandulal Sahu’ and the remaining six–Chanduram Sahu–have an equally familiar ring.
It has assumed epidemic proportions in Kerala, with 30 namesakes in 15 of the 20 seats. In Alathur, the CPI(M)'s P. K. Biju faces R. Biju, K. Biju and A. Biju, besides his main opponent K.S. Sheeba of Congress. Union minister Shashi Tharoor is not amused at the appearance of three other Shash is in Thiruvananthapuram and his only consolation is that there’s an Independent Bennet to make things difficult for CPI’s Bennet Abraham.