Retired justice Markandeya Katju could be the new chairperson of the Press Council of India, but Justice Sirpudkekar’s name is also in the race.

After the report of Lokayukta Justice Hegde, the CBI has forwarded the files of two more industrialists – Gautam Adani and Sajjan Jindal. While the whole matter will be looked into by the mining ministry, the CBI has read the motives of the home ministry well and is ready to do the preliminary enquiry.

Karnataka’s Home Minister B S Acharya, who was once Yeddyurappa’s yes man has gone against him. There was a time when he was coaxing Yeddyurappa to revolt against the party because he felt that if Yeddy went, he could be next in line for the top post. But Yeddy has named Shobha and Sadanand as his successors and incidentally, both are Vokalingas. A few days ago, Yeddyurappa had placed his hand on Acharya’s shoulder and said, “If I make you the CM, both Lingayats and Vokalingas will be upset, who collectively make up 35 per cent of the votes. You are a Brahmin and they make for just three per cent of the votes.” Acharya wanted to know how that could be a problem since Ramakrishna Hegde was also a Brahmin. To this, Yeddy clarified that back then the Lingayats didn’t have a leader of their own, and considered Hegde their own leader. Actually, what Yeddyurappa wants is to get a stay order on the illegal mining case in the next three months and get back the chief minister’s post. He is planning his entire strategy around it.

The BJP is in shock and awe with Yeddyurappa’s revolutionary mood. He has threatened that he will form a regional party, and says he is the one responsible for the party’s win in Karnataka – he has increased the number of Assembly members from two to 122. Where BJP had a miniscule 0.4 per cent vote share in the state, he has brought it up to 35 per cent. He says that if the party insults him, the Lingayats in the state will take it as their own insult. That’s because in north Karnataka alone, there are 25-30 per cent voters are Lingayats. There are nearly 20 per cent Lingayats in the state, while 14.5 per cent are Vokalingas. Yeddy’s camp is considering the 78 Assembly members of the BJP as their own, because they have won only because of Yeddyurappa. He claims that he can manage another 22 Assembly members since in their areas, there are as many as 15,000-20,000 Lingayat voters. There are 22 such Assembly members from Bengaluru and coastal Karnataka who have won on their own, and who are under the influence of the Sangh and Anant Kumar.

The party has given the responsibility of coming out of the Telengana trouble to their old problem-solver Ghulam Nabi Azad. Azad is also the prabhari for Andhra Pradesh. He is currently suffering from back bone disk problem (thank God he has a back bone), and can’t sit in a chair for a long time. So when a Rayalseema delegation came to meet him recently, it also had two doctors – Dr Geeta Reddy and Dr M Jagannatham. The meeting had just started when Azad cried out in pain. Both doctors instantly asked for some medicines and sprays, and the Telengana matter was lost in Azad’s pain. The doctors’ prescription worked and Azad found relief from pain but the Telengana trouble continues to hurt.

Just before Chidambaram went to Dhaka, he and Digvijay Singh has a confidential meeting, which went on for a long time. It is believed that Digvijay met him with a special message from Sonia-Rahul that the problems that party members have with each other should not come in the open, because it gives the wrong signals to the public. It is worth mentioning that it was Digvijay himself who has openly criticized the policies by Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The party is upset that during the UPA-2, the PM is doing what he wants to and doesn’t listen to what the party has to say. When Pulkit Chatterjee, who is close to 10, Janpath, expressed his desire of being made the Cabinet secretary, the PM overruled it saying, “Whatever will happen will be according to seniority.” This “seniority” issue took with it Pranab da, who wanted to bring in his own Sumit Bose as the finance secretary. But according to seniority, the position went to R S Gujral. The party was most upset about T K A Nayyar and the PM was told that he wasn’t good for anything and that he couldn’t defend himself in the 2G scam and thus should be dropped. The PM dropped him but then made him his advisor. Now the PM wants to send Nayyar to Raj Bhavan. He doesn’t want to upset the Malayali lobby. People even say that Nayyar fell prey to the Mukesh-Anil rivalry because he was closed to Anil. It will be significant to see if Pulkit Chatterjee being made the principal secretary will make relations better between 10, Janpath and 7, Race Course.

The PM is very upset with his party – everyone knows where the party actually functions from. He is miffed about why the party was silent when A Raja mentioned his and Chidambaram’s name in connection with the 2G scam. Why did not one come forward in their support? The PM then spoke to the party head directly, and it was only after that that a statement was released defending him.

There’s only one thing that the Congress wants during this Monsoon session and that is that the working of the Parliament should not be disrupted. That’s because it is pretty serious about the Food Security Bill, Land Reform Bill and the Communal Harmony Bill. Also, the UPA wants to give an impetus to economic reforms in the banking, pension and insurance sectors. The government is also serious about the Double Taxation Advocation Act and wants to make a law on the same, which should please the non-resident Indians, too. For this, it is crucial that the working of the Parliament is smooth, and that is why when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal and his junior Rajiv Shukla went to meet Opposition leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj at her 8, Safdarjung residence, they didn’t look very at ease, although Sushma was calm. Is it the lull before the storm?

This Monday will see the beginning of the monsoon session. But the governing party’s stubbornness is almost anarchy-like. A minister dear to 10, Janpath was seen – for shame! – wiping his shoe with Bapu’s khadi in Rajasthan. Another Congress spokesperson seemed to be glaring at Anna Hazare with a “We’ll see” emotion. Krishna seemed to be besotted with Hina, while the CBI got a dressing down from the court on the Ramdev issue. The main Opposition party, the BJP, is in the know of things with A Raja’s statement in front of Justice Saini about the 2G scam. It knows what 10, Janpath is upto and what its game is. So the BJP’s stance on the prime minister may be a tad soft in the Parliament. But the party will be aggressive on Chidambaram, which means in a hidden way, it will be Sonia, and not the prime minister in the line of fire by the Opposition. And with Sonia, her chosen loyalists.