The party leaders of the Betel leaf alliance met at the official residence of its secretarial one recently on the invitation of the alliance leadership to work out the fundamentals of their collective participation in the upcoming elections. 

Several leaders of some minor political parties who had expressed their willingness to team up with the alliance too were present at this meeting. The attention of the participants soon turned to the question of allotting specific quotas of candidates to be fielded on the alliance list in different districts and the representatives of each political party in the alliance came up with the number of candidates they wished to field on the common list. The participants were in for a surprise when one party leader announced that he had no candidates to be included in the common list. The Betel leaf leaders asked this party leader why he did not want to field any candidates from his party. And the reply he gave turned their surprise to amazement. “I, my wife and a few followers make up our party. Therefore, I don’t want to field candidates. So I am not asking for a quota for my party. I know the art of addressing the people at election propaganda meetings. I am only asking for two things. Come election time give me a helicopter for my transport and provide me with an STF detail for my security.  That’s enough for me!”

The Betel leaf secretarial one replied: “A leader of your standing and stature surely deserves such transport and security.  I will arrange all that to your satisfaction with due approval from our boss.”