Punters put gentle Lucknow on electoral map

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate and Chief Minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat Narendra Modi (2nd L) offers a saropa, holy cloth, to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's brother Surjit Singh Kohli (L), as Punjab state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal (2nd R) and BJP senior leader and candidate for Amritsar's parliamentary seat Arun Jaitley (R) look on, during an election rally in Amritsar on April 25, 2014. — AFP ********************************************************************************************************** LUCKNOW: The city in slow motion, as it rests on the banks of the Gomti river, was always a punter’s delight. Be it the fabled chessboard experts of Premchand’s stories, or the kite flyers of yore or its famous (or notorious) contests between vicious pairs of lacerating roosters, a small bet was always on in some corner of Lucknow on any given day. On Thursday, the observant punters had shifted their gaze to a new phenomenon in the electoral battle under way in the country: they had put Lucknow well up in their newly invented category for the dark horse. Should Narendra Modi fail to deliver his tidy sum of seats in spite of the deafening media chorus rooting for him, what then? The dark horse is not to be dismissed lightly or as a betting syndicate’s way of minting money. Many believe the punters are often better clued in vis a vis the craven polls that increasingly resemble paid news. Who could the dark horse, or horses, be? And let’s also look at why the punters feel it might be from Lucknow. A little history would help. Pocked-marked with canon shots fired by the rebels of 1857, the ruins of the British Residency in Lucknow still bear witness to the hard resolve this city is capable of, although idealists prefer to flaunt it as the promenade of genteel and etiquette-obsessed nawabs, a rendezvous of kathak dancers or as an endless fiesting at kebab shops. And yet there must be compelling reasons why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will project its shrill Hindutva face to garner votes anywhere in the country, but not here. Lucknow’s past as the hub of resistance to the British forces expands the respect and awe it draws from competing ideologues, and their political representatives. Atal Bihari Vajpayee represented a Hindutva party as prime minister, but he first imbibed a certain eclectic décor in the way to conduct politics, and that was Lucknow’s gift. It is this history of rebellion and courteous embrace that is thought to have nudged the BJP president Rajnath Singh to happily put on a common cap associated with Muslims, a gesture that Narendra Modi had pointedly refused to embrace. It is this small token of a gesture ironically that the punters could be leaning on. Should his divise overreach take a toll on Modi’s game plan, the punters are looking at and even helping recast Rajnath Singh as a moderate man to save the day for the BJP. The Singh calculation is a significant departure from the media projection of Mr Modi’s invincibility. The Hindustan Times on Thursday reported the ‘the worst-case’ political scenario as the betting syndicates are putting it: a coalition government with the BJP at the helm and regional political parties playing a significant role in New Delhi. While this scenario has Mamta Banerji’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the AIADMK as important allies, the BJP is still the bookies’ favourite to wrest power at the Centre — but projects a different Prime Minister: the BJP’s president, Rajnath Singh, the Hindustan Times noted. “These new rates presuppose a scenario where Narendra Modi somehow loses both Vadodara and Varanasi — or at least one of these — in addition to losing substantially down south and in the east,” a bookie told Hindustan Times. “In this case, given the fact that Modi as PM would be unacceptable to the leaders of the TMC, the LJP and the AIADMK, the BJP will be forced to put up another candidate for the post of PM. This will be Rajnath Singh,” the bookie added. Will Lucknow get its second prime minister from the BJP? The bets are on.