All ye sensible, come to vote on Sept. 5’ 

He was a hero of middle class during his heydays as the Chief Election Commissioner of India. But as a candidate for the Lok Sabha elections. Mr T.N. Seshan is facing an identity crisis when in front of the less-educated average voter.

‘Who is T.N. Seshan?, said Ashok, a 25-year-old youth while reading out the handbill thrown by the caravan of Mr Seshan, who was campaigning in pails of Ahmedabad city falling under Gandhinagar constituency on Monday.

A 70-year-old mistook him for his contender L.K. Advani, for election campaign largely means an Advani campaign here and second and more important, the lack of hair on their heads.

Perched on an open Mahindra jeep, Mr Seshan, in a white summer cap with Congress flag imprint, reached the front gates of Digvijaynagar Cement Employees’ Township at 8.50 am. The township has 3,000 voters. The entourage was immediately stopped by the guards for not haying permission to enter the township. He immediately gets hold of the portable public address system and apologises for not having permission.

He requests the voters to come to polling booths on September 5 in large numbers. He does not mention the Congress symbol and neither makes any promises. May be he is finding it difficult to go on longer with his broken Hindi and the lack of awareness of issues at the micro-level.

Its obvious that he is an Election Commission official when he asks the electorate to press the green button against the hand symbol of Congress party and of course a cent per cent presence at polling booths.

Though not a much-acquainted figure with the masses, Mr Seshan holds a good reputation among the salaried, middle class. ‘He is honest and he can win this election despite Mr Advani’s presence." said a mill owner. "Advani used to sit in Delhi, he never addressed our problems after electing from this seat, he added making his choices clear. The Seshan campaign is whirlwind. In hour and a half, he traverses through Ranip, Ghatlodia and Chandlodia areas.

At 9.30 am, he is received by a former deputy chief minister and education minister Narhari Amin and several party workers at Ranip.

When asked about the public response during the rally, Mr Seshan said the public response was extremely good. Right from 8 am in the morning, I have met more than 1,000 people and the public reaction have been just fantastic, said Mr Seshan. Beaming with confidence, he said, "I am going to win the elections if the BJP does not indulge in some malpractice."

Mr Seshan accompanied by the vice-president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee Balu Patel and other Congress workers embarked in to a jeep and travelled through the narrow lanes of both the villages and the posh western suburbs of Ahmedabad. They went to Memnagar, Thaltej, Shilaj, Aehebatpur, Vastrapur, the quarters of the Space Application Centre, Nehru Park, Ramdev nagar, Jodhpur, Satellite and others during the day.

He gets out of the jeep and does his best to woo his voter. After all his philosophy is "Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma phaleshu Kadachan."

compiled from local news media

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