Muzaffarpur writes George's political obit 18 May 2009, 0328 hrs IST, Faizan Ahmad, TNN
PATNA: In 1977, people of Muzaffarpur spotted posters of a handcuffed man behind bars and they came out to vote for him in sympathy. Thirty-two years later, people of the same constituency saw the same person in very poor health, trying to arouse the same sympathy. But this time, the people were in no mood to support him. And on Saturday, they almost wrote the political obituary of once firebrand socialist leader George Fernandes. Denied ticket by JD(U), the party he founded and headed, Fernandes went against the wishes of his followers and well-wishers and decided to contest as an Independent. He even campaigned for a few days but the result showed the iconic leader had been largely ignored by voters and pushed to the fifth position. The nine-time MP, who trounced heavyweight Congress leader S K Patil from Bombay in 1967 to begin his parliamentary career, lost his security deposit this time. He managed to get only 22,804 votes. Fernandes's relations with Nitish Kumar became strained after the latter became the Bihar chief minister in 2005. Soon after, he was unceremoniously ousted as the president of JD(U). And early this year, when he was denied ticket on health grounds, Fernandes was furious. He even planned a march to the CM's residence to show his physical fitness. Nothing worked and even Nitish's offer of a Rajya Sabha nomination was rejected by the veteran socialist. During his campaign, the former NDA convenor had told TOI that the people of Muzaffarpur wanted him to contest, and hence he was in fray. But it was very much evident that even those who had persuaded him to contest left him in the lurch and the workers were interested only in the money that Fernandes had brought with him to spend for possibly his last electoral battle. Fernandes, 80, who once famously took on multi-national companies and kicked Coca-Cola and IBM out of India, looked very frustrated and yet was hoping against hope to score his 10th victory. The man, who fought against the infamous Emergency and spent tortuous time in jail, was merely a shadow of himself this parliamentary election, failing to even express himself properly and move without support. The people of Muzaffarpur were only shocked to see an ailing Fernandes struggling for yet another innings in the Lok Sabha. Incidentally, his former wife and son had tried to prevent him from taking up the burden of the election. At that time George reacted, "I am sure I can undertake additional burden of poll campaign." Now, he must have realised that the burden was too heavy which his frail structure could not bear. SEE ALSO: George Fernandes loses security deposit http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/George-Fernandes-loses-security-deposit/articleshow/4540530.cms Ram Katha: All about George Fernandes http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ram-katha-all-about-george-fernandes/91267-37.html George publicly hurls expletives on estranged wife Leila http://www.bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2009/March/Newsbihar27March4.html George Fernandes >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fernandes CBI questions George Fernades in ARV bungling case http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/cbi-questions-george-fernades-in-arv-bungling-case/60578/on
