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A magician's dilemma

The ongoing election wizardry seems to have cast an evil spell on the flourishing trade of a prominent magician because his fellow practitioner is trying a sleight of hand in the arena of politics. This is how the story goes:

'Jadugar' Anand had scheduled a magic show in his hometown Jabalpur recently. But it was stripped of its charm when the district administration started pulling down the posters and banners as well as the large cut-outs of the magician, on the grounds that these were influencing the election process!

The action was taken as another magician, 'Jadugar' S K Nigam, is contesting for the Lok Sabha on a Ajey Bharat Party ticket. The ABP was founded by the Beatles's former guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Unaware of the fact that 'Jadugar' Anand was to be giving his shows in the town for around two weeks, the district collector issued orders for pulling down and confiscating all posters with 'jadugar' written on them -- such claims, you see, are against the Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct.

Anand said he tried to convince the authorities that his posters did not violate the EC restrictions, but in vain... He is an unhappy man today, knowing not how to attract people to his shows without posters, banners and cutouts.

He claimed that if was allowed to complete his performance in Jabalpur, he would have completed 23,000 shows and found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.