Think of a block Congress president riding a spanking new Toyota Innova on the narrow, pot-holed lanes of a Gujarat village. Senior Congress leaders are already chuckling at the thought of Life-After-Innova for all the block and district Congress presidents who have been given hired vehicles by the party for the impending state elections. The party decided to hand out hired vehicles after its experience with district Congress presidents in Uttar Pradesh: they got so hooked to the Boleros given by the party for campaigning that they refused to part with them even after the assembly election was over.

Three decades ago Ram Vilas Paswan campaigned on a bicycle to enter Parliament from the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat. Till the late 1980s, candidates moving in rickshaws with blaring loudspeakers tied on top were a common sight during elections.

Congress veterans recount that the party had always given some vehicles to workers ahead of elections and the latter’s refusal to give them up was something the party leadership had come to live with. In the run-up to the 1989 elections, Rajiv Gandhi had sent fleets of Mahindra jeeps to party office-bearers across the country. They held on to the vehicles even after losing their party posts later.

Times have certainly changed since. But it was CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan’s shift from a rickety Ambassador to a sleek Honda City that created a buzz in political circles, even as his party colleagues defended the move, pointing out that the ailing octogenarian leader did need a more comfortable car.

... contd.