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The Election Commission is ecstatic about the successful election model in Bihar and West Bengal and wants to try the same formula in Uttar Pradesh. The Election Commission wants to hold the elections in the state in seven phases and the entire exercise may take upto one-and-a-half to two months. Elections are also due to be help in Uttarakhand and Punjab and it is hoped that they will take place in both states by mid-January. Elections will be held in Goa and Manipur by the second week of April. That’s because next year is when the President and the vice-president will also be elected. The President will be elected in mid-June 2012 and the Election Commission wants that the new Assembly should be formed in the five states before the President elections so that it is easier to make the electoral rolls.

Behenji’s political plans have taken a beating in UP. She wants that there should be Assembly elections in the state next May-June. Behenji feels that during the sweltering heat of summers, it will be tough to get upper-caste people out of their houses to vote. The women voters will also find it tough to come when the sweltering hot winds blow, while those from the BSP cadre will come in hordes to cast their votes. On the other hand, Mulayam and the BJP (even the Congress was of the same opinion before the Anna episode) and the Election Commission were of the view that the first phase of the elections should happen from February next year.

Contrary to the party line (till such time that the BJP was in confusion about supporting Anna or not), the way Varun Gandhi supported the Anna Hazare movement has led to a lot of young supporters for him. Sri Sri Ravishankar had Anna meet Varun, and Anna had asked the saffron Gandhi to come to Ramlila Maidan but had also clarified that he will be unable to call Varun on the stage. That’s because according to his previous decision, the stage was barred for politicians. But Varun Gandhi caught the pulse of the moment and understood that even if he went to the venue and sat among the crowd, he will still get a lot of praise. So he got a lot of political mileage from the movement, contrary to his cousin.

Life’s tales have several mentions of cruel coincident, too. For instance, this Friday when the Congress yuvraj got up to talk about corruption armed with all the right expressions and frowns, he didn’t know what time and future had in store. The $2 billion Mirage deal could become a sore point for the Congress in the days to come. There have been some evidence that middlemen had a big role to play in the deal and it is speculated that as kick-back, an amount of Rs 300 crore that has allegedly been deposited in a company account in Singapore (the company is registered in Switzerland and works out of Singapore) is owned by a man who has connections with India’s most powerful political family. The talk related to scams of the company are being heard within and outside the Parliament and maybe that is why the person prefers to stay in London instead of India nowadays. The same person is being held accountable for a deal concerning night vision devices with an Israeli company. So, if there’s talk, there’s bound to be some more….

Let’s begin the next issue with a question whether the successor to the throne had come to talk differently from the prime minister and government’s line of thinking. Or whether Rahul Gandhi was playing the internal politics in the party and taking it to another level. As it is Rahul has been interested in a number of sports; after India’s win in the World Cup Cricket, he had arrived at Salman Khan’s home in Mumbai where the celebrations had lasted all night. But this time Rahul didn’t feel the need to go meet Anna at the venue where he was fasting. In his speech, he mentioned the “mind-changing game” and a similar game has started within the Congress. The people who were involved initially have retracted and Rahul and his entire team has hijacked the Anna and Lokpal issue in a way. So much so that Rahul spoke to the prime minister about the matter only a couple of times and among the older politicians only Pranab Mukherjee is in constant touch. Old firefighters such as Ahmed Patel have also been sidelined; team Rahul didn’t even deem it important to even take Ahmed Patel’s opinion on the matter. Which means that the Lokpal is opening up the doors of new opportunities for the new guards of Congress. Team Rahul and sister Priyanka’s entry into the Parliament’s visitor gallery is probably hinting at the fact that “Kya tez jagmagati thi quatil ke haath mein/ ab uski aastin mein to khanjar bhi na raha”.

“Desh ke yuva yahan hain, Rahul Gandhi kahan hai”. When the youth collected at Ramlila Maidan supporting Anna’s fast started to say this, the Congress yuvraj emerged from power corridors into the Parliament theatre like he had come up with a new agenda on the Lokpal that was different from the prime minister’s line of thinking. But on Saturday, Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj called it Rahul Gandhi’s message to the nation. Not only did she raise questions on Rahul’s 15-minute speech of five pages and talked about his speech reading, but also questioned the Parliamentary reactions. The Opposition leader said that usually the respected Speaker does not allow for such interventions during the Zero Hour, and if it granted at all, it is for a mere three minutes, which the speaker can extend up to five minutes. The Opposition had a feeling that Rahul had come to the Parliament to put forward the Congress line. The Opposition, and especially the BJP felt that Rahul ruined the prime minister’s statesmanship. The Opposition had a bigger role to play in Anna agreeing to breaking his fast than the Congress. And this issue is irking the prime minister’s camp.

A text message is doing the rounds nowadays, which says that Manmohan Singh will write his autobiography after his retirement and among his three biggest mistakes, he will mention 2G, 3G and Sonia Ji.

The prime minister’s office has informed Rashtrapati Bhavan that the governors’ conference that was supposed to be held in Delhi during the third week of August has been postponed. The reality, however, is that Anna’s fasting has shaken the government to its very core. The ED has made several unflattering remarks about the governor of a Hindi-speaking state and Manmohan Singh didn’t want him to be a part of the conference. And since the coming days will be more appointment of the governors (After the monsoon session of the Parliament gets over) and this Congress governor is sure to go. The party will hold the conference at a later date in November.

The BJP is also taking a strict stance on the farmers’ issue and are being headed by Rajnath Singh. When Singh reached Vidarbha with the issue, Kalavati of Rahul Gandhi fame also came to his meeting. She met Rajnath Singh personally after the meeting and said that she got name and money only because Rahul had personally met her but that hasn’t changed the conditions for the farmers in the area. As many as 2,000 women like her were still going from pillar to post and haven’t found a Rahul Gandhi yet.