A prominent change if afoot in the country and it can be sensed. The general tradition in government offices bearing a picture of the prime minister is normal. But sensing a big change in the country, pictures in several big offices are changing. Take, for instance, the office of president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Recently the  president had a big picture of himself shaking hands with Narendra Modi. This tells the story of the change of guard in Delhi. 

The country’s verdict may still be four weeks away, but preparations are already on to colour the Nizam of Delhi in a saffron hue. A core team of Modi’s is already at work making a list of all those things that will have to be on Modi’s agenda as soon as he becomes the prime minister. His intention is to portray India as a changed country without wasting any time. Topmost on his agenda will be to put a stop on the rampant corruption and thus, Modi will take special care while forming his Cabinet and include only those people who have a clean image. The Cabinet will also be designed on the Gujarat model, which means it will be comparatively smaller. Modi might keep the defence ministry with himself and the finance ministry may be claimed by either Arun Jaitley or Arun Shourie. Rajnath Singh might get home ministry or human resource development ministry, Gadkari might get urban development and Ravi Shankar Prasad may get law. Apart from this, Maneka Gandhi and Uma Bharti may get important portfolios, too and Sushma Swaraj may be made the Lok Sabha Speaker. There will be an attempt to include as many Muslim politicians in the Cabinet as possible. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Shahnawaz Hussain and M J Akbar will also stake a claim to a ministry.

There is a line of journalists waiting to handle Modi’s media department. Of these, Swapan Dasgupta, M J Akbar, Madhu Kishwar, Ashwini Chopra and Hemant Sharma’s name also feature. The names of Swapan Dasgupta who is Modi’s media advisor and Hemant Sharma who is handling Modi’s work in Varanasi are shining more than others. The brother-in-law of a Congress leader late Devendra Dwivedi, Hemant Sharma has been the bureau chief in Lucknow for a prominent Delhi newspaper. Later, he joined Rajat Sharma’s India TV and from there, he got close to Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. Talking about the popular Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage and praising God Shiva, Sharma has also written a book on the subject: “Dwitiyo Nasti!”. Apart from this, to give a suitable reply to Muslim fanatics, Modi will also keep an adequate tab on Urdu newspapers, channels and the journalists. Urdu newspapers may get a number of government ads. Modi might also make Madhu Kishwar the head of Women’s Commission.

If Delhi’s vice-governor does not give a proposal to the President for yet another Assembly elections in the state, the BJP may stake claim to form governments in the states of Uttarakhand and Delhi. Harsh Vardhan may be Delhi’s chief minister from the BJP and in that case the seat left vacant by him (if he wins from Chandni Chowk) may be contested by Vijendra Gupta or Sudhanshu Mittal.

Modi has made it clear to those close to him that if a BJP-led government comes in the Centre, there will not be any direct attacks on 10, Janpath. Neither will there be any action taken against Sonia’s son-in-law as a step to avenge. Modi government will not interfere in any way on the court cases going on against him about the purchase and sale of land. This way, Modi will be able to say that the law is taking its own course and Modi government has nothing to do with it.

There is a lot of discussion about Thakur leaders in recent times – it is how to trust their allegiance so soon. The way they have changed sides right before the elections is strange – for instance, Jagdambika Pal, Satpal Maharaj and Ramesh Chand Tomar have left the Congress and have joined the BJP. At the same time, N K Singh, who was said to be a close aide to Nitish Kumar, has also deserted JD (U) and joined the BJP.

Rajnath Singh has almost assured his win from Lucknow constituency. Lucknow has always been BJP’s top man Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s constituency. So when Rajnath Singh went to file his nomination papers, he exhibited his angavastram that had been gifted by Atal Bihar Vajpayee. It is another matter that in 2009, Lalji Tandon won the seat from Lucknow in the name of Atal. But his win was a slim one and because the people of Lucknow have had an emotional bond with Atal, Rajnath Singh does not miss the chance to mention him during his election speeches. The effects of Modi wave can be seen in Lucknow, too, and the Brahmin and Muslim votes will be the decisive factor. Nearly 80 per cent Brahmin votes seem set for Rajnath Singh, despite the fact that the SP has placed a Brahmin candidate in the area –Abhishek Mishra. Where Muslim votes being divided is concerned, Rajnath has got Peace Party’s Secretary M J Khan into the BJP, but other Muslim candidates from AAP and TMC are not giving up the fight. TMC candidate Mohd Sarvar Malik is a local businessman and there is clear indication of Muslim votes being divided there. Local Mullas and Maulvis are also not seeing eye to eye on this; Kalb-e-Jawad Shia Maulana is lend his support to the AAP and Sunni Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali is appealing to his followers to votes for SP. On the other hand, it is believed that in the coming day or two, Nadwan College’s Muslim spiritual leader Rabbe Hasni may come out in support of Rajnath Singh.

At a time when there will be a change of guard for Indian leadership, a lot of movement is also going to happen in the media. Arnab Goswami’s contract with Times Now is set to end this November and a brand in himself, Goswami is now exploring better opportunities for himself. He is constantly in touch with two Sharmas – one Rajat Sharma of India TV, and the other is the owner of India News and News X Vinod Sharma. Rajat Sharma wants to start an English news channel from India TV along with Arnab, in which Arnab may have a 25-30 per cent stake. Rajat and Arnab’s talks have reached the final level. Indian Express’ editor Shekhar Gupta had a meeting with Narendra Modi and it is being said that Modi talked tough with Gupta on Express’ stance on the anti-BJP and anti-Modi campaign. Sources reveal that matters came to such a head that the Express group’s owner Vivek Goenka had to call up Modi and clarify matters. In any case, Shekhar Gupta’s exit from Express is final now and Gupta is looking for newer avenues. For this, he is in talks with Mukesh Ambani and he is trying to get in to the Independent Media Trust that controls ETV and TV18. But there are several hurdles for Gupta there. Group Editor of CNN-IBN Rajdeep Sardesai’s contract with the media group ends in October and the channel does not seem keen on renewing the contract. Thus, Rajdeep, too, is looking for another place for himself and it is being said that he is in talks with Naveen Jindal, who has recently re-launched Focus channel in a new avatar. In the same way, India Today is looking for a new editor. All in all, the national media is looking at times that are a-changing.

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is contesting elections from both Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Those against NaMo have come out with the theory that if Modi wins from both seats, he is likely to keep Vadodara and will leave Varanasi. But now Modi’s core team has made it clear that as the future prime minister of the country, Modi wants to make a place for himself among the Hindi heart land and he may vacate the Vadodara seat for his close aide Amit Shah. Sources reveal that Amit Shah may get an important portfolio in Modi Cabinet. Where Gujarat is concerned, NaMo may give his chief minister’s chair to Anandi Ben so that it sends the right kind of signals to the Patel community in Gujarat.

The way Mulayam Singh Yadav is giving quotes in election campaigns without making any sense and the way his chief minister son is having to give clarifications, proves how much stress Mulayam is going through. Actually, Netaji is having a big fight with his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav. Things have gone bad to such an extent that Akhilesh Yadav is not even on speaking terms with his uncle. The differences between both brothers erupted when Shivpal said to Netaji that if the SP wins less than 15 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh as the chief minister will need to be replaced. It is said that Netaji took such offense to the suggestion that he clearly told Shivpal that if there came a time when Akhilesh would have to be replaced, he shouldn’t eye the seat since in such a scenario, he himself would take charge of UP. This was the reason that Netaji also turned down Shivpal’s demand of giving his son the seat from Sambhal constituency. Netaji said that from now on, no one’s son or daughter from the family will not get a ticket, while Shivpal wanted to know that is such was the case, why was Professor Ramgopal’s son Akshay given a party ticket? The father and son duo have also barred Shivpal from going to campaign for any party candidate’s rallies and asked him to sit in Lucknow and take charge as the party’s spokesperson. When Azam Khan got a whiff of this, he touched Shivpal where it hurt, saying he was there with him during the trying times.