Indholdsfortegnelse for July 22, 2024 i India Today

At one end, take a Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani. He is 48, US-returned, and a physician-turned-edupreneur-turned-politician with Rs 5,705 crore in declared assets. The wealthiest contestant in the 2024 election, he now enters the sanctum of Indian democracy as a member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh’s chilli capital Guntur. Manoj Tigga and Bhaskar Bhagare, 52 and 53, respectively, are not much older. They have a link with education too, and are fellow debutant MPs. But there the resemblance ends. Tigga was a primary school teacher in Alipurduar, in the foothills of north Bengal, where his parents were tea plantation labourers from the Oraon tribe. And Bhagare ‘Guruji’, who taught History and Marathi to schoolkids in Nashik district for 33 years, had to crowdfund his fight for the Dindori seat. The contingent…

SURESH GOPI, 66 | BJP | Thrissur, Kerala His early turn was as an Angry Young Man, not just bristling with anarchist rage against the system, but willing and able to act on that with booming fists, fast bullets and a tongue that was itself arson. His overall comportment—6’2” and a high GDP on girth—meant he had to soon transition to a niche within the system. But again, mostly as a tough cop, the kind of IPS officer who, when called in for a dressing down by a corrupt minister, would bolt the door behind him and alchemise said minister into pounded meat. Such is the filmic image of the man—notwithstanding the touch of grey eminence he tried in recent films, including as host of Malayalam version of KBC—on whose…

SRIBHARAT MATHUKUMILLI, 35 | TDP | Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh As the grandson of the late M.V.V.S. Murthi—a two-time MP from Visakhapatnam—Sribharat has inherited more than just a name. He presides over GI-TAM, a deemed-to-be university founded by his grandfather in 1980 which now boasts a network of four campuses. Sribharat’s own academic pedigree is equally noteworthy. An alumnus of Stanford University, US, he holds a joint MBA/MA degree and has founded the Kautilya School of Public Policy in Hyderabad. With declared assets of Rs 232.5 crore, the young tycoon has also strategically invested in several start-ups. PRABHAKAR REDDY VEMIREDDY, 68 | TDP | Nellore, Andhra Pradesh Elected to the Rajya Sabha on a YSRCP ticket in 2018, Vemireddy quit to join the TDP ahead of the general election. A graduate from…

GENIBEN THAKOR, 48 | CONGRESS | Banaskantha, Gujarat She may not be a giant-killer in terms of votes, but Geniben has single-handedly denied the BJP a hat-trick sweep in Gujarat. The only Congress candidate to have won here, she is said to have crowdfunded her campaign (raising Rs 50 lakh) while also putting in 18-hour workdays addressing bike rallies, khatla parishads (door-to-door campaigns) and the smallest of gatherings. She reportedly also manned all the booths in her constituency on polling day. The effort paid off, as she defeated her BJP opponent Rekha Chaudhri, drawing support across her OBC cohort and some from even among the forward Chaudhris, the powerful dairy community. A grassroots worker, her first assembly poll run from Vav in 2012 ended in failure, but the never-say-die Thakor…

VIVEK ‘BUNTY’ SAHU, 45 | BJP | Chhindwara, MP Guts is something this 45-year-old seems to have in spades. A BCom dropout, Vivek Sahu, a.k.a. ‘Bunty’, had decided to beard the lion in his den in November 2023, taking on Congress heavyweight Kamal Nath in his bastion Chhindwara. That effort came to nought. As had the earlier one against Nath’s son, Nakul, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. But persistence seems to have paid off as has the BJP’s faith in its Chhindwara district chief. Sahu achieved the impossible this election, defeating Nakul, the sitting MP, by over 110,000 votes and wresting a seat Congress had never lost in a general election since 1952. BAPI HALDER, 37 | TRINAMOOL CONGRESS | Mathurapur (SC), West Bengal Riverine Mathurapur was the only…

ANIL DESAI, 66 | SS (UBT) | Mumbai South Central, Maharashtra A two-term MP in the upper house, Desai’s affable self sets him aside from the archetypal Shiv Sainik. Yet, the party veteran was a crucial backroom strategist for the undivided Shiv Sena. A former employee of the New India Assurance Company, Desai heads the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Hakka Mahasangh, the Sena’s union for white-collar workers. Originally from Canacona in Goa, Desai is a close confidant of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, and was chosen to take on two-term Sena MP Rahul Shewale of the Shinde faction. It proved a wise choice, though the win was aided by overwhelming Muslim and Christian support. PIYUSH GOYAL, 60 | BJP | Mumbai North, Maharashtra When Piyush Goyal was dispatched to this “safest seat” to…

ABHIJIT GANGOPADHYAY, 61 | BJP | Tamluk, West Bengal The former Calcutta High Court judge emerged as a lightning rod in this year’s polls. Justice Gangopadhyay’s resignation from the bench just months before his scheduled retirement to join the BJP ignited a fierce debate on judicial propriety. Known for his contentious rulings, including the high-profile CBI inquiry into Bengal’s cash-for-recruitment scam, Gangopadhyay became a polarising figure, drawing both bouquets and brickbats. And his poll campaign was marked by controversy too, leading to a censure from the Election Commission for his “improper, injudicious, undignified” comments about Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Given his past as an active member of the theatre group ‘Amitra Chanda’, it’s no surprise that his flair for drama shone during election campaigns. GOWAAL PADAVI, 31 | CONGRESS |…

RAHUL SINGH LODHI, 40 | BJP| Damoh, Madhya Pradesh Just one switch shot till now makes him a nearapprentice—but full of promise. From a family of feudatories in the outback, Lodhi won the Damoh assembly seat on a Congress ticket in 2018 against BJP veteran Jayant Malaiya. However, in 2020, he defected to the BJP and unsuccessfully contested a bypoll from the same seat in 2021. His defeat was rewarded with a Lok Sabha ticket: close ties with party veteran and caste-mate Prahlad Patel reportedly helped. Worthy of an alumnus of Christ Church Boys in Jabalpur—a nursery of bureaucrats and politicians for Mahakoshal and Bundelkhand. NARAYANDAS AHIRWAR, 63 | SP | Jalaun (SC), UP Usually, ‘defectors’ are spoken of in tones ranging from strong disparagement to mild amusement—at best, conferred…

PARTY-WISE DEBUTANTS The TDP and SP have the highest share of newcomers in their ranks THE RICHEST DEBUTANT… Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, 48 | TDP | Guntur, Andhra Pradesh Assets: Rs 5,705 crore … AND THE POOREST Mitali Bag, 47 | TMC | Arambag, West Bengal Assets: Rs 7.8 lakh 44 Debutants among the 74 women MPs WHICH STATES HAVE ELECTED THE MOST FRESHERS? Around 70 per cent of the MPs elected from Karnataka and Maharashtra are new entrants NEWBIES VS OLD-TIMERS (Out of 542 MPs*) THE AGE PROFILE A MATTER OF DEGREE All MPs / Debutants 201, or 72%, of the 280 debutant MPs have at least a graduate degree Doctorate 20 / 9 Professional Postgraduate 40 / 19 Postgraduate 135 / 79 Professional Graduate 27 / 4 Graduate 181 /…

BEGINNER Q1. Generally, there is no relationship between risk and return when investing a) FALSE b) TRUE Q2. You can make your investments grow faster by reinvesting any interest or dividends earned a) TRUE b) FALSE Q3. The fees you pay when investing can impact your investment returns a) TRUE b) FALSE Q4. If you are a first-time investor and unsure of where to start, simply invest in the same products as your friends or family a) TRUE b) FALSE Q5. Holding shares of only one company is less risky than holding many shares from different industries or countries a) TRUE b) FALSE Q6. You cannot start investing with a small sum because investing requires a lot of money a) TRUE b) FALSE INTERMEDIATE Q1. You can tell how an…

IQRA CHOUDHARY, 29 | SAMAJWADI PARTY | Kairana, UP Blessed with political pedigree as well as educational degrees, Iqra is exactly the kind of young parliamentarian a modern democracy needs. Her grandfather Akhtar Hasan, father Munaw-war Hasan and mother Tabassum have all been parliamentarians, and Kairana has been something of a stronghold for the Muslim Gujjar family. After completing graduation from Lady Shriram College in Delhi, acquiring a law degree from Delhi University, Iqra went on to study International Politics and Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Her first political success came when her campaigning for her brother Nahid Hasan, who was in jail, saw him win the election. This time, she has won the election herself, defeating sitting MP and Jat leader Pradip Choud-hary as…

BASAVARAJ BOMMAI, 64 | BJP | Haveri, Karnataka His father S.R. Bommai’s name has become a keyword in Centre-State relations since the eponymous—and landmark—Supreme Court judgment of 1994. Thirty years later, India’s federal architecture is still shaken by the periodic tremor, even if not via President’s Rule. But the son will now observe the landscape from the other side as he travels from state to Centre. Basavaraj had a stormy passage as Karnataka CM but proved to be a nightwatchman who stuck around and scored a bit. Also, as a needy migrant from socialism to the Hindu right wing, more loyal than the pope. TRIVENDRA SINGH RAWAT, 63 | BJP | Haridwar, Uttarakhand It’s a rebirth of sorts. In his four years as CM, the pracharak from Pauri came across…

CHHATRAPATI SHAHU SHAHAJI, 76 | CONGRESS | Kolhapur, Maharashtra Assets worth Rs 342 crore, a 1936 Maybach and a 1962 Merc in his fleet of vintage cars, and yet a “commoner among royals”! That is indeed the moniker his connect with the masses has fetched this Kolhapur royal and 12th descendant of the Maratha warrior Shivaji Maharaj. ‘Mothe Maharaj’, as he is also called, had joined the Shiv Sena in the 1990s, but refrained from dipping his toes in electoral waters. He was content instead to let his sons dabble in politics while he devoted himself to numerous educational institutes and charitable trusts. Till the Congress persuaded him to contest the Kolhapur seat, he obliged, and tasted success in his maiden parliamentary foray. Now in the lower house, the upper crust…

MISHA BHARTI, 48 | RJD | Pataliputra, Bihar It was third-time lucky for Lalu’s first-born, named after the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), the Emergency-era legislation that had Lalu in jail when she was born in 1976. Having lost Patliputra both in 2014 and 2019, Misha finally defeated her nemesis, the BJP’s Ram Kirpal Yadav, by 85,174 votes to deliver the Lok Sabha seat to the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Something even her father couldn’t do in 2009. Misha was the first of Lalu’s children to step into politics in 2014 but, in the absence of electoral success, took the Rajya Sabha route to politics in 2016, leaving the state and party in charge of younger brother Tejaswi. 2024 is her first win at the hustings. DURAI VAIKO, 52…

MOHIBBULLAH NADVI, 48 | SAMAJWADI PARTY | Rampur, UP Call him the Muslim card who outfoxed the Muslim high roller—in a manner of speaking. The imam from Delhi, Nadvi was the ‘outsider’ fielded by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav against the wishes of local biggie Azam Khan. Nadvi managed to mine his native roots—he was born in a Rampur village—and his clerical cachet to pull off a win. Muslim MPs often went to the mosque where he has been imam since 2005, near Parliament, for namaaz. Now, Nadvi has made the reverse journey. SATPAL BRAHMACHARI, 60 | CONGRESS | Sonipat, Haryana He made heads turn when he got a ticket, and again when he won. The last two times, the BJP had staged a successful siege on the Jats at…

VISVESHWARA HEGDE KAGERI, 62 | BJP | Uttara Kannada, Karnataka A six-term MLA till his victory run—on since 1994—was halted in 2023 in his picture-pretty Malnad home base of Sirsi; a minister in the BJP’s first government in Karnataka; speaker in 2019. The Havyaka Brahmin law graduate became a comfortable fallback for the BJP when it had to hastily drop its six-term Uttara Kannada MP Anant Hegde after his remarks about “changing the Constitution”. VASANTRAO CHAVAN, 69 | CONGRESS | Nanded, Maharashtra Sarpanch of his village, Naigaon; two terms in the state legislative council; MLA in 2009…such was the resume of the Chavan picked to fill the giant hole left by another Chavan. In 2019, the BJP’s Pratap Patil Chikhalikar had delivered a shock defeat to Ashok Chavan in his…

C.N. MANJUNATH, 66 | BJP | Bangalore Rural, Karnataka When Dr Manjunath puts his heart into politics, the electoral operation is bound to be successful. A lesser mortal may perhaps have felt shaky taking on Karnataka deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar’s brother, the two-term MP D.K. Suresh, but clinical precision is the exact forte of the eminent cardiologist and Padma Shri awardee. There is already a ‘Manjunath Technique’ for Balloon Mitral Valvuloplasty, the term could soon signify political acumen as well. Having transformed the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research into one of Asia’s premier cardiac care centres over his 18year tenure as director, the son-in-law of former PM H.D. Deve Gowda exemplifies how a government heart institution can provide affordable world-class care. SAMBIT PATRA, 50 | BJP |…

HARENDRA MALIK, 69 | SAMAJWADI PARTY | Muzaffarnagar, UP A slogan that went viral said it all. It’s not just that he started as a student leader in 1978, in the high noon of Jat farmer icon Charan Singh’s political life. Or that four MLA terms, one stint in the Rajya Sabha and three political parties later, he defeated fellow Jat and local BJP toughie Sanjeev Balyan in a high-stakes contest. Right after his oath-taking, the burly Malik leaned into the mic and said, “Jai Chaudhary Charan Singh, Jai Netaji Mulayam Singh, Jai Akhilesh.” No one in western UP missed that thumbed nose at Charan Singh’s grandson, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhury, watching from the treasury benches. AMRA RAM, 68 | CPI (M) | Sikar, Rajasthan This grassroots Marxist is a…

MURLIDHAR MOHOL, 49 | BJP | Pune, Maharashtra What that image doesn’t tell you is that the man with the bullocks was also the mayor of Pune, and got it to be one of 50 Champion Cities in a 2021 global challenge. He oversaw the Metro’s expansion, had a medical college set up and was praised for being hands-on during the pandemic. But the photo does exude the aroma of the village clay he’s formed of: born into a native martial art ethos shaped around wrestling, he went to Kolhapur, the mecca for grapplers, to learn its finer points. One loss in a 2009 assembly poll apart, that skill has not deserted him in politics—long-time RSS/BJP youth wing incubation now blossoming into a surprise Union MoS slot. To reach it,…

Q. Why did you decide to do this children’s book? I always wanted to do it. I thought it was interesting to highlight the subject for children, operating with a very different set of constraints and codes. People who live in poverty are kind of invisible and not really talked about for children. I thought it important to reach children with good literature on a topic they are not exposed to often. Q. How challenging was it to simplify complex economic concepts? I don’t think I could have written this children’s book without first writing Poor Economics. It requires you to understand a topic extraordinarily well to be able to concentrate it into these nuggets. The key is not what is complicated; the key is what’s important to say. Q. How did a…

KALIPADA SAREN KHERWAL, 66 | TMC | Jhargram (ST), West Bengal His literary credentials are perhaps better than his political ones. A Santhali playwright, the retired bank employee is a two-time Sahitya Akademi Award winner, a Padma Shri awardee (2022) and also the recipient of West Bengal’s Banga Bibhushan Samman (2024). An alumnus of Rabindra Bharati University, he used to run a theatre group popular in Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. Having had close ties with TMC leaders, he was a surprise pick from Jhargram. Now that he’s won, Kherwal wants to be a “strong voice for my people” in Parliament. RAJKUMAR ROAT, 32 | BAP | Banswara (ST), Rajasthan This is one man who knows how to cut a dashing figure, whether attired in stylish tribal gear, or arriving in…

MANOJ KUMAR, 41 | CONGRESS | Sasaram (SC), Bihar A casual labourer’s son come to reside in Babu Jagjivan Ram’s long-time abode—that was a virtuous turn for the Grand Old Party. The seat had been with the BJP for a decade—under Chhedi Paswan, who’d first succeeded Jagjivan in 1989. And two defeats, in 2014 and 2019, had pushed his legatee Meira Kumar into retirement. Having opted to field her Cambridge PhD son Anshul Avijit from Patna Sahib, the Congress needed a new face for hilly, back-ward Sasaram. In came Manoj, with only a failed 2019 bid on his resume, but the times on his side. He recalls how his father would string him along while seeking an Indira Awas grant. “He thought the officials would take pity on me. They…

BHASKAR BHAGARE, 53 | NCP(S-P) | Dindori (ST), Maharashtra It was billed as a David versus Goliath fight—a Union MoS, a legacy politician to boot, against an ordinary school teacher who had spent 33 years awakening kids at Pimpalgaon Baswant to the finer points of history and Marathi. As it happened, Bhagare ‘Guruji’ dispensed a few lessons even to Dr Bharati Pawar. Associated with the NCP since its 1999 launch, the tribal leader’s ambit had hitherto not gone beyond the panchayat samiti and zilla parishad. But the willingness he encountered while raising funds from villagers for the campaign already showed a potent anger was simmering on low flame among onion cultivators. RAKIBUL HUSSAIN, 59 | CONGRESS | Dhubri, Assam The five-time Samaguri MLA has never suffered from a deficit of…

NALIN SOREN, 76 | JMM | Dumka (ST), Jharkhand As a seven-term MLA from Sikaripara and a contemporary of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) patriarch Shibu Soren, this seasoned tribal leader’s political journey—which started from the undivided Bihar—has been marked by loyalty and rigour. Though only four years younger to Shibu, Nalin idolises him and has remained steadfastly loyal to him and his son Hemant. Nalin’s Lok Sabha win has been celebrated across the party cadre because he has not only reclaimed Dumka, a seat previously held by Shibu, but also because he defeated Sita Soren, Hemant’s estranged sister-in-law who joined the BJP ahead of the election. BRIJENDRA SINGH OLA, 72 | CONGRESS | Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan A postgraduate in political science from Rajasthan University, Ola lived up to the legacy of his…

G. KUMAR NAIK, 60 | CONGRESS |Raichur (ST), Karnataka The 1990-batch IAS officer, who retired from service in September 2023 as the Bangalore Development Authority commissioner, served as deputy commissioner of Raichur between 1999 and 2002. Now, representing the seat in Parliament, he faces a far bigger challenge. Part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, Raichur is an economically backward area of the state, facing significant healthcare disparities. Bringing an AIIMS campus there is chief among Naik’s goals. SASIKANTH SENTHIL, 45 | CONGRESS | Tiruvallur (SC), Tamil Nadu Senthil set a record in his electoral debut by winning the Lok Sabha election with a margin of over 572,000 votes, the highest in Tamil Nadu. The 2009-batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer quit service in 2019 citing his inability to continue when “fundamental…

ANGOMCHA BIMOL AKOIJAM, 57 | CONGRESS | Inner Manipur, Manipur Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, wears many hats. The Meitei academic from Manipur is also a filmmaker and, if you ask his mother, had a brighter future as a musician. Indeed, in a viral video, he was seen singing a song by the rock band Scorpions. Known for his expertise in social/political psychology and cultural studies, his was a strong voice from Manipur in the national media during the Meitei-Kuki-Zo ethnic conflict. Critical of the government’s role, he accused the Indian Army and Assam Rifles of bias and documented the media’s alleged prejudice against Meiteis. His victory over the BJP’s Thounaojam B.K. Singh accounting for 47 per cent vote share in the Meitei-dominated seat reflected popular…

SELVARAJ V., 63 | CPI | NAGAPATTINAM (SC), Tamil Nadu As CPI leader Selvaraj puts it, Nagapattinam comes at the “tail end” for water from the Cauvery river, shorthand for the farmers’ distress over the lack of it for irrigation or even the dearth of state support for fishermen going out to sea. This was the first Lok Sabha election for Selvaraj, who has been a loyal soldier of the country’s oldest Communist party for over four decades now. The party chose to place its faith in their Tiruvarur district secretary since four-time MP from here and his namesake, M. Selvaraj, had been ailing for a while (he passed away on May 13). The new MP won by over 200,000 votes and he will be hoping to repay the people’s…

ANIL BALUNI, 53 | BJP | Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand In 2002, a young Anil Baluni quit his job as a journalist in Delhi to return home to the newly=formed state of Uttarakhand to contest its first assembly polls. But his nomination from Kotdwar on a BJP ticket was rejected on technical grounds, and he later lost the re-election when that decision was overturned. Gujarat governor S.S. Bhandari made him his OSD then, and his active participation in BJP activities in Gujarat caught Narendra Modi’s eye. He has risen since to become the party’s national media in-charge and was also a Rajya Sabha MP in 2018. This time, he defeated Congress’s Ganesh Godiyal by over 163,000 votes. An authority on the flora and fauna of Uttarakhand, Baluni continues to wield the…

A dream that many Indians live with is to become a crorepati. Such was the fascination for this figure that the British TV game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was made into Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) in India to play on the magic figure. The iconic show has made the figure of a crore seem achievable and now many people wish to know what it will take for them to become a crorepati, even as many others wish to know if a crore is a good sum to retire with. Yes, Rs 1 crore is a big amount, especially when many of us are barely able to save a few thousands each month. But, with discipline and risk-taking, achieving a corpus of a crore is within reach. Let…