It doesn’t matter how bad Sanjay Baru may have fared as the prime minister’s media advisor, but his book “The Accidental Prime Minister” on Manmohan Singh is a hit. Sources close to the prime minister have revealed that Manmohan probably had no idea that the publication of this book will cause such a ruckus. Sources also say that till such time that Baru was associated with the prime minister, then National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had a lot of investigation done on him with formal instructions from 10, Janpath. Baru was close to two women journalists during his tenure in the PMO – of this, one is a journalist with a leading english news channel to whom Baru often met at the five-star hotel The Taj. The other journalist is a Gujarati woman and has been in headlines for her links to the Mumbai underworld, it is said that their phone conversations and mail exchanges were also scoured. Sources reveal that back then, Narayanan had also met Baru’s wife and had warned her saying she should keep a keen eye on her husband’s doings. It is said that ever since, there was daily strife between the Baru couple.

Quite contrary to his sister Priyanka, Varun Gandhi is going about his election campaigning in Sultanpur extremely seriously. Sources reveal that Congress people are also involved in his campaigning in a significant way. Seeing his, Sultanpur’s Congress candidate Rani Sahiba, that is Amita Singh is shocked. Amethi district was once a part of Sultanpur. After the division, most of the industries and businesses went to Amethi. Sultanpur only has a sugar mill, which is running a loss of Rs 10.5 billion. As a result, a big number of youth is migrating out of the area in search of employment. Varun is raising the issue in a big way in his rallies.

The most significant thing is that the old people in Sultanpur see Varun’s father Sanjay Gandhi’s resemblance in him. During his public interaction initiative, when Varun Gandhi went to a veteran Congress leader, who is also a former Parliamentarian, saw such a strong resemblance of Sanjay Gandhi in his son that he got emotional and started crying. Varun Gandhi’s eyes, too, brimmed over with tears and the entire atmosphere became so emotionally charged that everyone had moist eyes. The former Parliamentarian addressed Varun in the vernacular and said, I know both sons (Varun and Rahul) will win.” Varun is talking about Sultanpur being his karmabhoomi and is in a face-off with BSP’s candidate Pavan Pandey. Pandey has a negative image and there are no less than 30 criminal cases against him, which deal with everything from rioting to murder.

The BJP is raising hell against the deletion of a 19-minute part of Narendra Modi’s interview that was broadcast on Doordarshan. The party has also made public the deleted part, where Modi had made some sharp comments against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ahmad Patel, Miyan Musharraf and about  a meat exporter. Swords are drawn between Manish Tiwari and Prasar Bharti’s CEO Jawahar Sarkar about the editing and censorship of the interview. Ashok Srivastava, who conducted the interview is also in the news about his has links with the Sangh and the BJP. It is worth mentioning here that Ashok Srivastava’s father Vijay Dutt Srivastava has officially been Advani’s additional personal secretary in the past and has had close relations with the Sangh leaders. Sources reveal that during the NDA rule when Sushma Swaraj was the information and broadcasting minister, Sushma got Ashok into Doordarshan at Advani’s request. When Ashok Srivastava got married, Advani played a big role in organising the event. The most interesting part is that Ashok’s wife is still working as Tarun Vijay’s assistant in Sangh’s mouthpiece Panchjanya.

After being release from prison on bail, Sirsa’s independent candidate and a former minister in Bhupinder Hooda’s government, Gopal Kanda is busy forming a new party. He is in constant touch with Hooda’s previous associate and close friend Vinod Sharma, who is now upset with Hooda. Sources reveal that big differences between Hooda and Sharma about wheeling dealing have crept up and there has not been a solution to it. Before this, Hooda and Sharma had meetings on four consecutive days at Sharma’s Piccadilly Hotel but the business matters didn’t get resolved. Now both friends don’t see eye to eye; Sharma, too, made unsuccessful attempts at getting into the Haryana Janhit Congress and the BJP. Now Kanda and Sharma may form a regional party in Haryana and it is being said that at least six Congress MLA are in constant touch with them. A MLA Bhushan Batra from Rohtak is allegedly in touch with Modi and the BJP and, as a result, Deependra Hooda seems to be in trouble in Rohtak. If the NDA forms a government at the Centre led by the BJP, Hooda’s government in Haryana may be in trouble.

In the days to come, Nitish Kumar’s good days may become not-so-good days. All public opinion surveys are claiming that in the coming polling for General Elections, Nitish’s  JD (U) may have to content itself with merely one-two Lok Sabha seats. On the other hand, Lalu and BJP’s clout may increase. Sources reveal that if the JD (U) indeed performs so poorly in the elections, Nitish’s government may fall. Apart from this, two court cases may also cause trouble for Nitish. One of them includes the fodder scam, in which Lalu was proclaimed guilty and Nitish was let go for lack of proper evidence. Apart from this, when Nitish was the railway minister under the NDA rule, an alleged sleeper scam took place under his tenure. When Lalu became the railway minister later, he handed over the files related to the case to the CBI. An advocate in Bihar A P Singh filed public-interest litigations about the matter and has collected some solid evidence in the court about these cases. The advocate claims that Nitish might be found guilty in both cases because the court has accepted his litigation and the sleeper scam matter may be presented in the court this July.

Narendra Modi himself had called Varanasi’s royal descendant Anant Narayan Singh on the phone and requested that he become the proposer for his nomination. Modi wanted one of the descendants of Varanasi’s royal family to be present during his nomination, but Anant Narayan Singh politely passed the offer saying he has consciously tried to stay away from active politics and in a sense, he has no interest in politics. While the real truth is that Varanasi’s Congress candidate Ajay Rai, who is related to the Bhumihar caste, had already established contact with Anant Narayan along with some of his friends, and had appealed to Anant Narayan that since he belonged to the Bhumihar caste himself and was their descendant, the Bhumihar would appear to be divided if he sided with Modi, that is the BJP. Understanding the logic behind Ajay Rai’s appeal, Kashi Naresh Anant Narayan Singh decided to turn down the offer of becoming Modi’s proposer.

The minority pacifying policy of Mulayam and Company is now beginning to annoy even the Yadav’s bastion. They feel that Mulayam’s entire focus has shifted from Yadavs to Muslims. In the past few days, in places considered to be the Yadav strongholds such as Mainpuri, Etawah, Kannauj and Farrukhabad, an SMS has gone viral, which says, “Yadavon ne vote diya Dadda(Mulayam) ko, Dadda ne diya Lalla (Akhilesh) ko, and Lalla ne chun liya Mulla ko – batao kya mila Yadav ko ?(The yadavs voted for Mulayam, who picked Akhilesh, who picked Muslims…What did the Yadav’s get?)” The third phase of elections in UP that concluded on Thursday and saw 12 constituencies in the state went for vote, will make or break the future of Yadav family and several politicians in the party. That is because Mulayam Singh Yadav himself is from Mainpuri, his daughter-in-law, that is Akhilesh’s wife Dimple is contesting from Kannauj, and Prof Ramgopal Yadav’s son Akshay is beginning his political innings from Firozabad. This Yadav trio is deep inside terrified that their own community being upset with them might harm them.

When the BJP decided to contest Lallu Singh, who lost the Assembly elections, from Faizabad and announced its decision, Vinay Katiyar took such offence to it that he left the Central Election Committee and walked out. It is said about Vinay Katiyar that in the last elections, too, instead of making attempts to win from his own seat, all his energies and focus was on how to ensure Lallu’s defeat. The result was that Lallu lost from his constituency and Katiyar too couldn’t save his seat. But this time Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate has made clear is priorities about winning from Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi, so much so that not only is Team-Modi is camping out in Ayodhya, that is Faizabad, to ensure Lallu Singh’s win, the Sangh is monitoring the entire election in Faizabad. The party is keeping a special eye out on such party members who are indulging in anti-party activities. Realising the gravity of the situation, Katiyar, too, is on his behaviour, so much so that he was seen with Lallu when he was filing his nomination.

Modi’s road show during the filing of his nomination papers in Varanasi turned all election figures on their heads. Opponents had no idea that Modi will play such a political hand on Thursday and that the show’s live telecast on news channels will have such a bearing on the 117 seats which  went to the polls nationwide. Political experts believe that Modi’s road show have changed the results in nearly 33 election seats in eastern UP, especially Chandauli, Mirzapur, Allahabad, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Balia, Bhadoi, Robertsgunj and Azamgarh. For now only three seats of the 33 belong to the BJP, but it is estimated that 20 of these 33 seats may go saffron. This is being indicated as a big victory on Modi’s part. 

Has the Congress-led UPA government laid down its arms before the election results have come out? So much so that still the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh is now hesitant to talk to the top officials of the IB. Until now, the IB has always foretold the government about its idea of the results at any of the Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections will probably be the first general elections where the officials at IB are not sifting through public opinion surveys because at least the prime minister doesn’t seem to be interested in the IB report.