A short circuit caused a brief moment of panic during a press conference held by BSP president Mayawati in Lucknow. Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav called it a security lapse and demanded an investigation.
The petitioner alleged this hurt his religious sentiments as the BSP supremo compared herself to Lord Rama.
Mayawati comes to the battle field armed with a Dalit-Brahmin-Muslim combination once again. She has given around 10 seats to Other Backward Classes and three each to the Baniya and Thakur communities. If she wins impressively, it will be because of her "inclusive politics".
The bench made it clear the tentative view was expressed by it as the matter would take some time for hearing.
'A class antagonism of rich versus poor took the colouring of a communal confrontation,' says Sunil Sethi.
'In this resurgent India, class is the new caste. We are shaken up only occasionally, and briefly, when a battered, tribal teenager from Jharkhand looks us in the eye from our closet,' says Shekhar Gupta.