It's all hush-hush. Nothing's on record. But the link between power and libido is age-old. And it carries on with even more vigour now.
Many of the hoary politicians of today—across the political spectrum—enjoyed colourful reputations. Indeed, some of their erotic escapades are now the stuff of legends: a neta who refused to address a political rally until a former girlfriend was produced before him; another who passed off his mistress as his "wife" while on tour and yet another who disappeared for three days with his lady love.
Now, it is the turn of a new generation of middle-aged politicians whose relationships are rather more mercenary. Let's take a case in point: a senior, much-married politician known for his roving eye and currently involved with a dusky, Mumbai-based, twentysomething company executive. He's supplied with high-end call girls by a staff member and also enjoys ready access to the bimbettes floating around political circles. He's open about his affairs, entertaining girls at home or taking them abroad. Another time, his partner was caught shop-lifting in Europe. In yet another incident, a member of his entourage got into a fight with a call girl in Latin America. On both occasions, the ambassador to the respective country had to intervene.
Another senior politician (from south India) accesses his lady friends through an MLA in his party. Yet another one from the south has a regular girlfriend—the two actually made it to the cover of a regional daily—and is also known to frequent five-star hotels for a little action on the side.
Sexual adventurism, from philandering to voyeurism, cuts across party lines. A senior politician who suffers from satyrisis has a quick turnover of girlfriends, apart from employing the services of expensive call girls. He's believed to have love nests in Delhi and Gurgaon, where his latest paramour lives. The MP is known to swap girls with a buddy (a former CM), who's himself been linked with several of the capital's femmes fatales, apart from having a regular mistress back home. A bachelor MP, involved with several women, once got into a scrap with a colleague over a Mumbai girl. In another incident, a playboy MP from Maharashtra got into a fistfight over a girl with a colleague, but she eventually wound up with a third neta!
In terms of the bimbo culture, the BJP is catching up with the Congress. Indeed, after the advent of Sonia Gandhi—or perhaps after the infamous cases of Naina Sahni (who was burnt in a tandoor by ex-Delhi youth Congress president Sushil Sharma) and Sarla Misra (a Congress worker who was burnt under mysterious circumstances, allegedly for her liaison with a senior colleague)—the Congress' bimbo brigade has become low profile. But then you can always turn procurer, an easy route to getting a party ticket. Of late, a small-time DPCC functionary has taken to hosting "mujras" for his senior party colleagues!
There's something about Delhi: an MP from Maharashtra acquired a taste for call girls soon after he arrived in the capital; a senior Punjab politician's son, known for his "wild ways", has had several romps in Delhi's farmhouses; a Haryanvi politico makes forays to the capital on weekends for satisfying a reputedly "insatiable libido".
Small wonder the politico's favourite pimp, Kanwaljeet, busted many times, is still at large. He specialises in models and starlets. His charges? Rs 75,000 to 5 lakh. He changes his mobile number every 15 days. His rule: "don't call me, I'll call you".
Sting operations have been conducted via honey traps but this hasn't put politicians off—in fact they are careless enough to leave evidence of their presence at the strangest of places. A senior politico once asked a party colleague who happened to be in New York to recover a pair of designer silk pyjamas he'd left behind at a girlfriend's house. In another incident, police raided a kotha in Jaipur and recovered the pyjamas belonging to a then minister.