Indian couple preparing for a political punch-up

Domestic politics have taken a personal turn in India, where a politician has switched allegiances because of a long-running row with his wife.

In the run-up to parliamentary elections next month, veteran Congress party leader Giridhar Gomango, 61, has switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party because his politician wife, Hema Gomango, 55, insisted on contesting a constituency he previously held.

He defected after Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi formally nominated Mrs Gomango as the party's candidate for Orissa state's Koraput constituency, even though he had won that seat seven times himself since being elected in 1972.

Earlier, Mr Gomango had threatened to divorce his wife - a first-time MP elected on a Congress party ticket in 1999 - if she refused to give up her seat. But she has refused to budge.

After Mrs Gomango became an MP, her husband was ousted from his new seat in provincial elections.

He aimed to return to his old electoral ward but Mrs Gomango dispelled any notions that she might step aside for her husband. 'Like any other man, Gomango believes that a woman's job is to cook and produce children and he is very jealous of my success as an MP,' she said.