But many leaders realise that they have to take the rough with the smooth and have ventured out into pot-holed terrain, because they understand that a career in politics itself is a bumpy ride. The path to power, they know, is not strewn with flowers.

Congress party general secretary, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who decided to rough it out, did not take into account the treacherous nature of Indian roads. While walking around Park Circus in Calcutta, trying to win votes for former Congress chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Azad, who is in charge of the West Bengal party unit, fell into a huge pothole. He is reported to have sprained his ankle. Those who were witness to the incident commented that the fall was a premonition of the fate of the Congress in the state. The party has been seeing a steady flow of its leaders joining the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee. Supporters of (CPI-M), who gathered there, said it was better that Azad fell now because his party would any way have fallen at the hustings along with Ray. It is not known whether Azad continued his campaign on foot or decided that discretion is the better part of valour and continued on a vehicle.

Unlike Azad, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) rabble-rousing leader, Uma Bharati, knew beforehand what roads in India were all about and got her party to shift her from Khajuraho constituency in Madhya Pradesh to an urban constituency, where there are better roads. Though it was widely known that she was looking for an excuse to shift from Khajuraho to a "safer" constituency, Uma Bharati told the party that she had a back problem and could not stand the strain of bumpy rides.