Planes, trains, autorickshaws: what vehicle will take your party?

Since aircraft are not allowed to fly with more passengers and crew than the number of stipulated seats, only the BJP would be hemmed in by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien assigning modes of transport to his estimates of party tallies in the 16th Lok Sabha. As he deems the BJP may have enough to fill an Airbus A320 — presumably the most recent model, called A320neo, or "new engine option" — it would confine the high-flying party’s total to between 150 and 180, depending on interior configurations. But his allocation of a train compartment to the Congress contingent offers far more leeway as overcrowding is hardly unknown on Indian Railways. So, even if he means a 78-seat Garib Rath AC coach — appropriately, a UPA-I innovation — double that number can conceivably clamber aboard for the ride.

However, limiting assumptions of the probable size of Aam Aadmi Party squad just by its O’Brien-designated vehicle, the autorickshaw, may not be advisable. After all, the quizmaster-turned-TMC MP must be aware of just how many Kolkatans squeeze into them at rush hour. Given the sheer diversity of Indian transportation, from bullock carts to buses, it is unfortunate that he has stopped at just three and not earmarked specific carriers for either his own party or for others that hope to send MPs to New Delhi this time.