Our ears and eyes in Lucknow tell us that central Minister of State for Communications, Manoj Sinha was for a while riding well to the CM’s chair in Uttar Pradesh. He was apparently the first choice for the Modi-Shah duo. In fact, transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari had been given the deployed for clearing his path. Gadkari took up ‘office’ in the Five Star Taj Hotel and even got 187 MLAs to sign their support for Sinha. When Yogi Adityanath got wind of this, he rushed to Lucknow and he too took up ‘office’ in the same Taj. This became the game changer, and even the RSS fell in line. The Gomti flowed swiftly, as swiftly as the changes in the complex political drama, in which it soon became clear that Yogi pulled more weight. Watching these developments, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh sent two of his closest aides to meet Yogi, and they were swept off their feet by the deep saffron line toed by Yogi. After this, Yogi got a call from Shah and was told to reach Delhi to meet him. Shah promptly told him to meet Modi. By the time Yogi reached 7 RCR, Modi was about to leave for Uttarakhand to attend the oath taking ceremony there. The two met for barely two minutes. Modi congratulated him and said: “I am giving you a huge responsibility.” With that he went for Dehradun and Yogi rocketed to Lucknow.

Ever since Yogi became the CM in Uttar Pradesh, the retired IAS officer and PMO strongman Nripendra Misra has made Lucknow his part-time home. He had been given charge of making the appointments and transfers in the bureaucracy and was directly in touch with the RSS bosses. He intermittently spoke to Modi as well and with Amit Shah, he was a regular. The BJP high command wanted to appoint shipping secretary Rajiv Kumar as UP chief secretary, and depute additional secretary Sunil Agarwal as Yogi’s principal secretary. But when Misra reached Yogi’s office with the bosses’ wish list, Yogi promptly botched him. Yogi chose Avanish Awasthi, husband of folk singer Malini Awasthi, as his principal secretary. The message was clear: when in UP, do as the Yogi does. And no one need bother sidestepping him, please!

Birds from Mulayam Singh’s garden tell us that the top honcho in the Mayawati camp, Satish Mishra and Mulayam had a meeting for over close to one hour recently. As expected, both the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are down in the dumps after the licking in the UP state polls. Top leaders of the two parties apparently feel that if they do not make a fresh beginning even now, then both will be uprooted in the 2019 General Elections. It is said that it was Mulayam who took the first step and spoke to Mayawati, who then sent her trusted lieutenant Mishra to meet the SP (M) boss. Both of them agreed to leave behind the past animus and unite. Mishra, however, had the apprehension that if ‘Behenji’ takes such a step, the Centre might file a few CBI cases against her for corruption. But the old war horse Mulayam shot back: “There are many more such cases against me.” Mishra was convinced, but said that Amar Singh should be nowhere around in this deal, and Mulayam said, “Thine will be done!”

After the shocking results of the UP elections, a distraught Akhilesh surrendered himself at his father’s feet. The two of them had a marathon meeting for over three hours, during which old wounds were dried and new strategies worked out. Thereafter, uncle Shivpal was summoned. The moment uncle arrived, Akhilesh said: “Tell me, uncle, what have you gained out of this?” Shivpal said: “At least, you have realised that just flooding the media with money gets you nowhere.” To which Akhilesh retorted: “You made us lose in at least 13 or 14 seats.” Shivpal said: “Oh no… in many more. I came to ask for just two seats from you, but you refused. Don’t forget I am old wrestler and know very well how to put the rival on the mat.” Mulyam sat through, mute, sans reaction, and poor Akhilesh had nothing much left to say.

All the saffron ministers in Uttar Pradesh not just want ‘lucrative’ ministries for themselves, but even spanking large offices too. Earlier in the state, former CM Akhilesh’s coterie used to hold fort in the iconic Fifth Floor of the Annexe Building. Akhilesh, Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan all had their offices there. Then Akhilesh got a sparkling new office made, the Lok Nayak Bhavan, bang opposite the Assembly Building. This is also just next to the state BJP office. Promptly, Azam Khan and Shivpal too relocated to the new Bhavan. Now this has become the office of the new CM, Yogi Adityanath. Interestingly, the two deputy CMs, Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya were given the chambers earlier used by Azam Khan and Shivpal. But all of a sudden, Maurya started eyeing the Fifth Floor office in Annexe, and he got his nameplate stuck on the doors of that office as well.

After the victory in four out of the five states that went to the polls recently and sustained the saffron wave beyond 2014, the aspirations of the new fuehrer of India have started kissing the stars. In his recent visit to home state Gujarat, Narendra Modi spent two nights, of which one was spent exclusively with just a handful of his most trusted lieutenants. There were just 18 people in the meeting, of which 12 were the topmost BJP leaders of the state; three were RSS leaders believed to be very trusted by Modi; and three were from the India Foundation, led by Shaurya Doval. The level of secrecy Modi wanted was such that he told the invitees that they should hire taxis to the venue and not use their own cars, so that no one, especially the media, could sniff out who all were meeting him. And guess what the meeting was about? Though the Gujarat state polls are way off, in end-January 2018, Modi has decided to make another complete sweep. And we are told by the flies on the wall that it could very well be advanced to cash in on the current Modi mania. This he made clear in the meeting. Sources say that a day earlier, he had summoned all the party MPs from Gujarat and told them to start poll preps right away. And now it seems after the confidential Gujarat meet that the polls may be held this July or August. He told the invitees at his Gandhinagar meeting that from now, he would be visiting the state at least twice a month and personally oversee the preparations. When one of the invitees commented that the Aam Aadmi Party is raking up the issue of tampered electronic voting machines, Modi very softly and very firmly said: “Do not bother about such things. This will be historic victory for us.” Those who are close to Modi know it very well that before any election, he never misses paying obeisance to Lord Shiva at the Somnath Temple. Over the past few months, Modi has visited Gujarat seven times. And during his visit on March 8, he went to Somnath. The signals are clear then, that Gujarat is headed for the polls this mid-year!

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi seems really worried about how to usher in his much needed image makeover. Though he was licked in the state polls in UP, he is now determined to emerge at the international level as a high class intellectual. And he and his personal office are fully engaged in that effort. People deep inside reveal that led by Sashi Tharoor, RaGa’s office is in constant touch with the Oxford University. They want that Rahul should be invited to deliver a lecture over there. Though Rahul’s alma mater is Cambridge Univ, there is no disputing that when it comes to catching global political attention, there is no replacement for Oxford, which is why the constant interaction with the Oxford Union. Our sources say that Tharoor and the secretary of the Union have even had a one-to-one meeting. But scuttlebutt is that the other members of the Union are not too hot on inviting Rahul. They feel that RaGa’s smeared social media image is not right for him to be invited. Besides, they also apprehend that inviting him may not go down well with the university’s students either. Naturally, the authorities want to very sure of what they want to do. Given these circumstances, two top Indian British billionaires, Sir Swaraj Paul and the Hinduja brothers, had been requested to persuade the caucus at Oxford to organise the lecture. But it seems the two – who have given huge funds to Oxford in the past – have not exactly shown any exciting response.

After submerging Uttar Pradesh, the saffron duo Amit Shah and Modi are looking straight at the 2019 general elections. They have shown no hurry in selecting the UP CM, but they are rushing to meet the poll promises made to the state voters. Modi, the known strict administrator, summoned an emergency meeting of the top babus of the state immediately after the poll results were declared. The officers have been tasked to implement the key promises made in the 30-page poll manifesto. And green signal has been given to a four-point action plan. For Modi and Shah, cracking down on the law and order situation in the state is of the utmost priority. They also want 24-hour power supply in the state, action on mechanical slaughtered houses, and write off of the debts to the sugarcane farmers. Some of their favourite officers have also been enlisted, such as the once favourite of Rajnath Singh, Alok Singh, who has been sent on deputation to UP. And all this, even before the CM-elect has taken oath!

May be the RSS did not have its say all the way in selecting the CM for UP, but it had a clear field in Uttarakhand. Whereas the Sangh’s top leader Bhaiyaji Joshi had full support for Rajnath Singh as the UP CM, but could not pull it off, but in Uttarakhand, the entire top brass from Nagpur had backed Trivendra Singh Rawat to the hilt. The credit of bringing Rawat into BJP goes to former UP BJP organising secretary Mohan Singh Rawat. Trivendra Rawat belongs to Pauri region and is a trusted person of RSS and Amit Shah. He had been a minister in the reigns of Nityanand Swami as well as Bhagat Singh Koshyari. It is said that he was once very close to Rajnath Singh, but in the changing political spectrum, he changed his political hue, strategy and loyalties.

A huge media house that always batted for the Congress seems to be poised to change hands soon. When to top boss of the company met the richest man in the country, Mukesh Ambani recently, she had a proposal. And since that day rumours have been rife about the impending change of hands. Knowledgeable insiders tell us that at the moment it is all stuck on the price. Bees are humming that whereas Ambani wants to set the purchase price of the company as the sum total of the current value of its shares in the market, the lady is insisting on a larger amount, which must include its name, brand value and goodwill. At the moment the proposal is in the freezer. Meanwhile, the lady has started a new startup company and shifted all her top paid and senior-most employees to its rolls, though they are all doing just what they had been doing. It is estimated that this will help hike the profit ratio of the media company and its share value will take a pole vault. Any startup enjoys a five-year tax holiday, so the media company will reap that benefit as well and improve its stature in the share market, which will force Ambani to re-evaluate the company’s price he would have to pay.