When the legendary bureaucrat D Babu Paul was at the prime of his career, Parliament and Assembly elections were boringly peaceful. At the most there would be some silly fights over wall graffiti.
But in 1970, when he was Palakkad district collector, a complaint that looked far more serious than a quarrel over wall writings came before Babu Paul. The CPM and the Congress had an issue with the campaign poster of the candidate of a largely unheard of party called Bharathiya Jana Sangh. And the candidate, a successful young lawyer named O Rajagopal.
Babu Paul found this lawyer candidate quite quirky. Rajagopal with a flourishing practice had shut down his office and had jumped into the ocean of politics with no hope of reaching even miles away from the shore. Rajagopal had lost his deposit twice before.
It was with his deadly sense of humour that Paul approached the Jana Sangh candidate. "Why mister Rajagopal this suicide?" But Rajagopal's reply floored him. "Sir, it is a question of commitment. I got a call. I responded. The choice was not mine."
Right away Babu Paul knew that he was here to stay. So he picked up the controversial poster and examined it. It definitely had a Hindu nationalist tone but it was not as harmful as the Congress and the CPM had made it out to be, the young IAS officer thought.
He called the leaders of the three parties to his room for a settlement. The Congress and the CPM were furiously against any kind of compromise. But Rajagopal was calm. Babu Paul then pulled the Congress and CPM leaders aside and told them what looked so obvious then. "Why do you want to make such a fuss. This man is already in the habit of forfeiting deposits and his party has no roots in the area. Why do you want to give a candidate with no hope of victory unnecessary importance?". The Congress and CPM leaders looked at the young collector with a sudden sense of realisation. The matter ended right there.
As expected, Rajagopal came third. But this time he gave the main parties a mighty scare. CPM's R Krishnan retained the seat with a margin of 5,460 votes but the difference between the Congress-backed independent and Jana Sangh's Rajagopal was just 2000 votes. And just three years ago, in 1967, Rajagopal could win just 4,649 votes and had forfeited his deposit.
