Campaign Diary: Chronicle of an Election Fought and Lost
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Manvendra Singh
Penguin Books India
200 pages, Rs 499
In March 2009, Manvendra Singh, the BJP’s candidate for the Barmer Lok Sabha constituency, launched his election campaign to retain the seat that he had won with a record margin in 2004. Over two months, he crisscrossed his sprawling constituency straddling Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, meeting his constituents who included herders and headmen; communities of traditional balladeers and craftsmen; youth groups and hoary old political fixers; Muslim pirs, Jain munis and Hindu priests. This is a daily record of those gruelling weeks of canvassing voters and a compelling portrait of democracy in action in one corner of India.
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