Hillary, Barack: Take note

An independent candidate in a Delhi election, backed by his local resident's welfare association (RWA), has a new campaign tactic: Annoying the hell out of his constituents.

RP Gupta, being unaffiliated with any traditional party, needed to choose iconography with which his constituents could connect -- the Congress' symbol is an open hand and the BJP uses a lotus, which serves to allow even illiterate villagers to select the party that most closely reflects their values.

Gupta decided on a whistle, presumably because he could physically utilize it in his electioneering. The Indian Express reports, "The whistle seemed like an odd option till we hit upon an innovative way to campaign in our constituency .... 'Each time I go out for campaigning I start blowing my whistle getting people to come out of their homes. They all know me as the old man who blows a whistle outside their windows,' [Gupta] says."

I suppose it could be worse: he could have chosen a can of mace and sprayed the vile liquid in his constituents' eyes, or perhaps his gimmick could have been a leg -- his attendant action could have been kicking the people in his neighborhood in the groin.