But that's on the surface. Scratch the skin just a little and the underlying hypocrisy comes out stark and clear. For Rao, moral high ground was claimed by denying party tickets to the hawala-tainted ministers. But amid the hurly burly of ticket distribution, he swiftly dealt out nominations to the wives, sons, and other kin of the accused. Rao, the new Mr Clean of Indian politics, the man who had dropped B. Shankaranand and Rameshwar Thakur in the wake of the securities scam, did not once flinch before offering them Lok Sabha nominations from Chikodi and Bhagalpur respectively. And the very same Advani, who made squeaky clean noises while resigning from the Lok Sabha, cleared the nomination for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's wife, Ketaki Singh, from the Gonda constituency. And in tune with his illustrious colleagues, Sharad Yadav did not bat an eyelid before filing his papers for the Madhepura Lok Sabha constituency.