Crying foul

Candidates standing against H D Kumaraswamy, former Karnataka chief minister and son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, are threatening to approach the Election Commission with an unusual request: to declare crying while canvassing for votes a poll code violation. The reason for their angst is that Kumaraswamy apparently has the knack of shedding tears on a whim, and he is crying copious tears, irrespective of whom he is addressing, during a house-to-house canvass for votes in his constituency of Chikkaballapur, north of Bangalore.