Bellary best by bahu brigade. Behind that alliterative sentence lies a drama that keeps unfolding in the hinterland of Karnataka.

Let's take them one at a time.

Bahu No. One of course is Sonia Gandhi, festooned with her widowhood. Having jilted the Intelligence Bureau and SPG personnel who though she was on her way to remote Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh, she must now be wishing that she had redirected her flight even further, perhaps to Napoli.

She thought this would be a cakewalk, since the Congress has never lost Cuddapah. And for insurance, there's always good ol' Amethi to fall back upon. But unfortunately for her the script went somewhat haywire. As agitated partyfolk complained about telephone tapping by the IB, she was suddenly confronted with the prospect of facing off against Bahu No 2, that being the girthful Bharatiya nari Sushma Swaraj.

Swaraj, herself, has quite a chequered past. It goes like this. She started her political career as a socialist MLA in Haryana. After Meham, she screamed, as she does in high decibel, that she would never have anything to do with Om Prakash Chautala. Of course, now that her party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in propping up Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal Government in the State, she has conveniently developed amnesia.

There's more to the Sushma story. Remember when the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government was formed? She was its female face, another mukhota for the party of male chauvinists. She was a high flier. But eternal bachelor Vajpayee was not too taken with her, so he did the dirty. Suddenly, she found herself foisted upon Delhi as its Chief Minister, replacing Sahib Singh Verma. She never quit her South Delhi Lok Sabha seat. No way, she knew better. With a month to go for the elections and the onions crisis surging, she could only avail of histrionics like swearing upon the Gita that she never, never had any links to Romesh Sharma.

The BJP was routed under her leadership though she did win, narrowly, the Hauz Khas Assembly seat. Which she quit, returning to the cool environs of the Lok Sabha to upbraid poor Girdhar Gamang over not quitting his LS Seat and voting in the House.

All that was recent. Even more recently, she announced that she would not contest the LS elections. Left unsaid was the unhappiness over hubby Swaraj Kaushal being kicked out of the job she had wangled for him, that of dealing with the Naga separatists on behalf of the Central Government.

Obviously, her sun was eclipsed.

But mentor Lal Krishna Advani had other ideas. He convinced her to stand by to take on Sonia Gandhi. Why? Well, kill two birds with a single stone. First, keep Sonia and the Congress on the tenterhooks. Second, more significant, position Sushma as a viable candidate for the Prime Ministership, if she did cause the major upset of the elections in Bellary.

Really? Yes. She's definitely has the PM syndrome. And the Advani lobby desperately wants wishy-washy Vajpayee out. How so? Well, if he returns to power, his Government will continue to perform as disastrously as it did in this avatar before Kargil saved its ass.

Thereafter, with gentle persuasion from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its acolytes, Vajpayee could be dumped. But then given his rath yatra vintage, Advani would not get the support of the riff raff that comprises the National Democratic Alliance. The option, therefore, is to have a convenient puppet already strung up. Who better than swadesh beti Sushma Swaraj!!

Now, we come to Bahu No 3. Priyanka Gandhi has been campaigning for mom. DeVadrad for a change, she appears quite comfortable with politics. So, if mom wins both seats, Priyanka could make her debut at Bellary. And another Nehru-Gandhi generation would be introduced to electoral politics.

That, of course, means nothing to the Bellarywallahs who are so attuned to national politics that they respond more to Cargill than Kargil . But when larger games are being played out, do the poor dumb voters actually matter?