The low electoral turnout in Mumbai, 41.24 per cent, was shameful. Apparently the prospect of a long weekend was too tempting for Mumbaikars for not exercising their franchise. In New Delhi, despite the heat the turnout was 50.3 per cent. The most encouraging part is violence-free polling in Bihar. Projections of the likely seats humorously vary. Congress minister Ashwani Kumar is confident that the BJP will not make even the third digit whereas Rajnath Singh is over-confident about BJP’s clear lead in numbers. What a fertile ground for the bookies!

We shall keep our ‘options open’, is the election mantra of political parties, whose numbers are expected to be pathetically low but whose support will be decisive in government formation. This constant refrain indicates that these parties are fence sitters. Lalu Prasad, having run out of abusive invectives against Nitish Kumar, is sulking in sublime silence. Mulayam Singh deserves a place in the Guinness Book of Records for his promised support to any party at the Centre which would dismiss the Mayawati Government in UP. This bizarre remark betrays constitutional illiteracy. State governments cannot be dismissed at the likes and dislikes of the Centre but only on fulfillment of the constitutional requirements of Article 356, namely constitutional breakdown of machinery in the state. Mulayam Singhji should be given a copy of Article 356 and the Supreme Court judgment in the Bommai case, translated in Hindi. Tragically in this election, we the people of India are constrained to be mute impotent spectators in the Theatre of the Absurd.

... contd.