Men, women to watch in Karnataka in 2001

S.M. Krishna: Who says he will not take leave till December 27, 2001. He expects dissidence to emerge in his party in the typical Congress fashion during the year. He may strip his home minister Mallikarjun Kharge of his post and make him the ``chairman of the one-man commission'''' to suggest ``Alternative Strategies to Prevent Bandits From Kidnapping Actors.'''' Mallikarjun Kharge: Who thinks he will replace Krishna as the CM in 2001.He has started brushing up his English and learning the computers. He has to fight Krishna as well as Dharam Singh and Bangarappa who will be in the race for the CM''s post. He will say that there are cases pending against S. Bangarappa: Who is predicting that he will be the next CM. If AIADMK leader Jayalalitha, against whom a host of corruption cases are pending in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, wins the elections in early 2001, Bangarappa''s chances may improve. Dharam Singh: Who thinks that, since he has no friends and no enemies either in the Congress or anywhere because he has neither done anything good nor bad in his career, he will be the Congress-style consensus CM in case Krishna has to step down. Nafees Fazal, Rani Satish: The women ministers who are already loudly wondering if the posts of chief secretary, the mayor of Bangalore and the governor are filled by women, why can''t the post of the CM be. Deve Gowda: The former prime/chief minister, who spoke of a third alternative in year 2000 will talk about fourth alternative in 2001. That is because his arch rival Ramakrishna Hegde will start talking about third alternative in 2001. Veerappan: Who wants to join Tamil Nadu politics, after writing a book on himself and making Rajkumar produce a film on him. He will join Karnataka politics, if Jayalalitha becomes the Tamil Nadu CM. Teresa Bhattacharya: Who will be busy answering criticism that her husband was better in the chief secretary''s post. This criticism, coming from her husband''s bitter critics in the bureaucracy, starts worrying her. Shankar Bidri: Senior police officer and former chief of the Special Task Force who has bagged a contract from a prestigious foreign publisher to write a book on Veerappan. His problem: Can he write everything what he has done and what he has not done in the jungle as the STF chief? C. Dinakar: The director-general of police who wants to register himself as a lawyer on March 1, 2001, just a day after his retirement. He will be more of a problem to politicians than when he was the state police chief. He is expected to file a series of public interest litigation petitions before the Karnataka high court and argue the cases himself. Dinakar will also keep a close watch on what Bidri is not writing in his book. R. Srinivasan: The seniormost police officer after Dinakar, who is likely to be the next police chief of Karnataka since Krishna has followed the seniority rule in the appointment of Dinakar and Teresa. But he will spend most of his time to find out what petitions Dinakar is filing after his retirement and what Bidri is writing or not writing in his book. V.V. Bhaskar: The second seniormost officer after Dinakar who wants to become the police chief instead of Srinivasan. His logic: since the seniormost IAS officer Achala Moulik refused to become the chief secretary and allowed second seniormost Teresa to get that post, why can''t Srinivasan too refuse to become the police chief? He may ask Dinakar to fight his case in the courts. (prasadsrinivasa@indiatimes.com)