He brought his eyes to the troop assembled below it. The KDP and HDP members from his circle, waiting.
“Samar Bhaiya.” Hariraj Singh presented him with the registration papers, party constitution, affidavits of allegiance to the Constitution of India, PAN details, and a list of office bearers. He ran his eyes through the bunch, checking names and spellings on the forwarding letter.
PARTY NAME:National Development Party
PARTY PRESIDENT:Dr. Samar Dixit
WITNESS 1:Atharva Singh Kaul
WITNESS 2:Hariraj Singh
After a long back and forth, they had finally agreed on National Development Party. Atharva had favoured North India Development Party because he had set his ambition aside after the hand that life had dealt him. Samar, on the other hand, had seen what ambition could do when pushed right. And he had succeeded in convincing Atharva.
Samar looked up from the papers and found Atharva’s Range Rover turning inside the gates. It rolled down the compound and came to a stop in front of him. Atharva got out, giving him a peep into the rest of the passengers — Iram, Noora and Yathaarth.
Atharva eyed him up and down. “You got your baraat too?”
Samar did not take the bait, looking around himself at the members instead — “We are not making a spectacle but they need to know that it’s not just a small-time party.”
“Heyylo!” Yathaarth’s head popped out of the back window, waving like a monkey on coke. Samar strode to him and tickled his forehead, making him break into a loud giggle. He seemed to get the biggest kick out of it. “Look who is going to see Delhi today.”
“Me!” He jumped and Samar immediately covered the window frame over him before he hit his head. “And Mama, and Noona and Baba!”
“Hi, Samar.” Iram’s voice made him peek at the passenger seat.
“Hi, Iram. All set?” He nodded to the jumpy kid. Atharva had promised them a Delhi trip after this was done today.
“I’ve kept sugar off but as you can see…” she gestured to the backseat where now Noora was also bouncing.
Samar chuckled — “Celebrate for us today. I am flying straight to Srinagar after, so party hard in Delhi. Some sugar is good for health. Doctor’s word,” he took Yathaarth’s face in his palm and shook.
“Again!”
Samar did it again.
“Ok,” Atharva intervened. “It’s 9.56. Samar, you can come home to play this weekend.”
“Noora, come out,” Samar tipped his chin.
“Why? I am on picnic.”
“Join the party, stand with them.”
He scoffed at Iram — “Huh, they need crowd. Biryani and 5000 rupees.”
“How about I give that all to you from your last salary?”
“Works…”
“This month’s salary. That will be your last.”
The cartoon scuttled out of the car and ran to the gathered group of members.
“I’ll be back.” Atharva left his car idling for Iram and Yathaarth and turned to him. He tipped his chin. Samar nodded. Today, he had to lead the way.
Samar walked up the three steps and handed over the bundle at the reception desk, where they already stood ready and waiting. He got frisked, followed by the rest of his members, and then they were invited in, striding down the wide lobby and through another waiting area. The doors to the Secretary of the Election Commission were closed. They waited outside as the officers processed their application to be submitted. This wasn’t as big a fanfare as it was made to be. Ideally, the application documents for registration of a new party ought to have been couriered. But they were not a new party, they were an evolved party, having gone through a genesis from a regional party, expanded into a state-wide party across three different regions of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh, and then expanded to Himachal as HDP, and later across Punjab, Uttarakhand and Haryana. They had two state governments under their name.
“Sir?” An officer called out to him. “You may go inside.”
