Madhu Koda appears to have made a miraculous recovery. He was in top-campaigning form on Wednesday as he navigated the streets of Chaibasa in Jharkhand ahead of the elections in his home state.

Two weeks ago, he rushed to hospital with a severe stomach ache after investigators accused him of collecting assets worth 4000 crores - not the sort of wealth a chief minister can typically build. Officially, anyway.

The charges of corruption couldn't come at a worse time. Koda, who was Jharkhand's chief minister between 2006 and 2008, has formed a new political party, the Jharkhand Navnirman Morcha. He has  six candidates contesting the elections from the Chaibasa area, including his wife, Geeta. Koda is a Lok Sabha MP from here. Determined apparently to try and make the best of a bad situation, Koda tried to use the corruption controversy as a crowd-puller. He offered to reveal the names of top politicians at a rally; these, he promised, were the people determined to frame him.

Like many other political promises, this remained unfulfilled. All Koda revealed was "National parties and regional parties, are both out to get me , as they cannot digest the fact that an independent rose to such eminence in politics."

As for answering those 4000-crore questions, Koda remains defiant. He has ignored a summons to report to Delhi for interrogation. Another summons issued to him for Thursday is likely to meet the same fate. "Once the elections are over, I will go wherever they call me," he suggests.

Once a politician...