With 3 phases over, candidates cool their heels

Priyanka Gandhi campaigned furiously for her mother and brother, addressing 15-18 meetings a day, but now with the verdict safely shut away in EVMs, she is back in Delhi to her more regular job - pulling mommy duty to her two children. A day after she was back in Delhi she attended a school play and sources say she may zip off for a short break in the hills, after the summer vacations start.

As three phases of polling have come to an end, it is time for candidates on those seats to pack up and make plans to fill time till May 16 when the results will be announced.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi is trying to make best use of human resources, he has asked senior Mumbai Congressman Gurudas Kamat, whose own contest in Mumbai is over to pitch in with the campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Karnataka MLA Krishna Byre Gowda who took on BJP's Ananth Kumar in Banaglore (South) will be in Rajasthan and Haryana helping out with the Congress' campaign there.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar who also wears the hat of chairman, Board for Cricket Control India, may, sources say, decide to look out for his other job, and go to South Africa to attend a few IPL season II matches. "He may go for a short while, but the political situation is so uncertain, he will be back before long," said one aide.

In uncertain political situations, it is important to keep one's flock close by, and this is what Telengana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrashekhara Rao is determined to do. Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh got over April 23, Rao has now decided to take candidates from his party for a long trip to tour north India. The idea is to keep them away from any horse trading that may occur. "The apprehension is that there will be a hung assembly in Andhra," said an MLA from the party.

Some candidates are packing short holidays before they have to go back to their constituencies for the counting. Biju Janata Dal MP Tathagat Satpathy in fact combined pilgrimage and holiday. "I visited the Vaishno Devi shrine, but I will be going back to Orissa very soon to organise party workers for counting day as Lok Sabha and Assembly polls are being held simultaneously there," he said. 

BJP national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy who has taken on Lalu Prasad Yadav from the Chapra Saran constituency is back in Delhi for a short break. "But I'll be going back as there is recounting in six polling booths on May 5th in Chapra," he says. 

His senior colleague Jaswant Singh may have fared better than others contesting polls in the cool Darjeeling hills, while others sweated it out in the plains, but his respite has come to an end. Singh is now back in Rajasthan where he will be campaigning for the party and his son Manvendra Singh who is contesting from Barmer. 

The wait for results is never pleasant and with stakes being very high, it is all candidates can do to keep their morale high.