The last week of January saw the news more on prospective candidates for the
municipal elections turning desperate and revolting against their own parties,
after coming to know that their names did not figure in the list of candidates
finalized for the official candidates for the forthcoming municipal elections at
places like Mumbai, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik and Pune. Almost all political
parties faced this threat, with some
of their senior leaders also turning rebels.
On the last day of filing nominations, many of the them had filed their
nominations as independent candidates; reported news channels. Many of them
openly blamed the party for favourism, while speaking to the news channels. And
the news channels were more than happy to cover such statements as Breaking
News! Some of the news channels also blamed the parties, for deliberately
delaying the final list of candidates. Now, it remains to be seen, how many
party leaders succeed in convincing them to withdraw their candidature from the
race on 3rd February 2012.
On IBN Lokmat, we witnessed a different talk show, wherein NCP Chief and Union
Minister Mr. Sharad Pawar spoke frankly on his opinion about some political
leaders in the news. Surprisingly, instead of opposing them, the veteran leader
spoke about attitude and Political ambitions of each one of them. Talking about
the Thackeray brothers, he opined that Mr. Uddhav Thackeray needs to improvise
on his Public relations more and indirectly hinted that Raj Thackeray had
maintained a better PR, compared to his cousin brother.
But, while speaking about the Political ambitions of his nephew- Mr. Ajit Pawar,
he was more diplomatic; though he appreciated his efforts to reach out to people
from different parts of Maharashtra. At the same time, he admitted that there
were few other senior leaders in NCP, who were also probable candidates for CM's
post. But, finally, he admitted that it was all a number game. "One who
registered majority support, will be the leader," he hinted.
In the entertainment section, reality shows still continue to dominate, with
variety of offerings. The serials, in particular the daily soaps seem to be
losing grip, with the exception of 'Suvasini' being a period story. Too many
negative characters in many serials has taken away the interest of audience, who
now prefer simple entertainment. For that matter
Urmila Matondkar makes them
happy with her words of appreciation and apt comments to encourage the
performers in 'Marathi Paul Padate Pudhe'.
During the past week, we also saw some former cricketers coming forward on
different news channels to offer their expert comments on the performance of
Indian cricket team in the test series against Australia. Vinod Kambli in
particular was very critical about failure of our Senior team members and blamed
Dhoni for some of his decisions during the ongoing series.
by Ulhas Shirke © MMW
|
