Balance of power

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has become almost legendary for his frugal lifestyle and, in the run-up to the state elections, his income and wealth disclosures only served to underline that point. The chief minister does not have any fixed deposits to his name and owns an ancestral house in his village. He also declared a bank balance of Rs 10,000. At the last state elections five years ago, his bank balance was Rs 16,000. That makes Sarkar perhaps the only politician in the country whose bank balance has, in fact, declined while in power.