Poll rituals

If devotion runs deep, it runs deeper for a politician during election time. This is even true for West Bengal’s Marxist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Halfway through his speech at a press conference at the CPI (M) party office on Alimuddin Street in Kolkata, the Muslim call to midday prayer was heard from a nearby mosque. “Let’s stop for a while,” comrade Bhattacharjee told assembled journalists, and started when the invocation stopped. His bow to the “opium of the masses” no doubt stems from Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee’s strenuous campaigning among the Muslims, including offering namaz.