Relations between Dinesh Trivedi and Mamata Banerjee have soured. Mamata feels that Trivedi doesn’t have very good relations with other Trinamool Parliamentarians. Trivedi, on the other hand, has started to sideline all those in the railway ministry who were close to Mamata. People such as Ratan Mukherji, Jayanto Saha, Ashok Subramaniam and said to be dissatisfied with the new railway minister’s way of working. As a PS, Trivedi has brought in a woman IAS from the West Bengal cadre. She is a Punjabi and is called Omita Paul in hushed voices. It is said that when Mamata met Trivedi in Kolkata recently, she let her displeasure known about Trivedi preferring to meet industrialists at his home instead of his office in the railway ministry. All in all, Trivedi’s train may get off the track any time.

This much is for sure that this time the entire command of the Uttar Pradesh elections will be in the hands of the Rahul Gandhi brigade. Team Rahul also has its eyes set on Uttarakhand and Punjab. Digvijay Singh has already donned the role of the narrator. For political management and crisis management, Team Rahul is seeking never-before help in the form of Ahmed Patel’s services. Barring Patel, most of those loyal to Sonia have given up active politics and the ones who are still active include Parvez Hashmi, Jitin Prasad, Sanjay Nirupam, Jyotiraditya Scindia, R P N Singh, Ravneet Singh, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, Ashok Tanwar, Sachin Pilot and Pradeep Jain. Priyanka Gandhi is also getting ready to support Rahul Gandhi, but her responsibilities may be limited to election campaigning.

अगले राष्ट्रपति पद की दौड़ में कांग्रेस की ओर से चार नाम चल रहे हैं-मीरा कुमार, मनमोहन सिंह, प्रणब मुखर्जी व हामिद अंसारी।

The Kiran Bedi scandal came to light through her phone tapping. Now the government is trying to sift through the Mizoram issue. Which means the days to come may be full of trouble for Kiran Bedi. Another crucial member of Team Anna Kumar Vishvas, who is a professor of Hindi at a college in Sahibabad, which is adjoining Delhi will soon be given a notice for a long leave of absence. Arvind Kejriwal has got another notice from the income tax department on the Rs nine lakh issue. Meaning the government is trying everything to seek revenge from Team Anna.

The government is not ready to let go off Team Anna so easily. So during a meeting with the prime minister, a Congress leader asked what of such an incident had happened with a Congress leader? Obviously, they would have tried to bring it under the Prevention of Corruption Act. If the government-owned airlines gives a 75 per cent discount to those who have got a bravery award, the already bleeding airlines goes into more loss. If someone takes full-fare money from sponsors and then uses the discounted fare at the cost of making the airlines incur more losses, what is it, if not corruption? The government gives the discount for travel, not for the trust owned by a person. The minister said that instead of asking for full fare for air travel from different organisations. It would have been better if Kiran Bedi had charged them for lectures and then donated that amount to her trust or NGO. To support his argument, the minister referred to the corruption case slapped against A K Antuley and said that all that Antuley had done was said that in lieu of the work done, this much amount of donation should be made to a particular organisation. But back then, this was considered corruption and the minister was punished for the same.

There is speculation in the political corridors that the winter session of the Parliament, which is set to start from November 21, may see a lot of changes in UPA-2. Several prominent leaders in the Cabinet may be relieved of their duties during this reshuffle and keeping in mind the Vidhan Sabha elections in five states, several heavy-weight ministers may be brought into the fold. Chief ministers of the three Congress-ruled states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh already have the sword of the high command looming over their heads but a search for their alternatives hasn’t been completed yet. Thus, two chief minister may be let off with a warning but there may be a change of guard in Rajasthan.

Since the time Pulak Chatterjee’s clout is doing its work at the PMO and 10, Janpath, and especially since he has taken over the PMO’s work, TKA Nair’s importance has reduced a little. He is neither as important, nor is the Malyali lobby in the PMO as strong. So Nair is now looking at finding a new role for himself. It is possible he may be made a governor soon and be given the charge of Rajasthan. But the prime minister is in favour of keeping Pulak in Delhi itself.

Pulak Chatterjee’s appointment as chief secretary is being seen as a preparation for crowing Rahul Gandhi as the leader. Rahul wants to wait till the results from UP elections are out but the party is in a hurry. The party and Sonia believe that the results from UP elections might lead to a loss of morale for the party and the time may not be right to crown Rahul baba. As far as Pulak is concerned, he is the prime minister’s chief secretary for sure, but he doesn’t have the status of a central state minister because according to seniority, the present Cabinet secretary is senior to Pulak. When he retires in April 2012, it will make Pulak the senior-most. Which means that period might be a golden one for Pulak.

Is Rahul Gandhi not in agreement with Manmohan Singh’s formula of liberalisation? Otherwise what was the reason for Rahul Gandhi to invite Yale University’s well-known professor Thomas Pogge – one of the biggest critics of liberalisation — for a lecture in New Delhi? Rahul is a trustee of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies, which had extended an invitation to Pogge for a lecture. This German professor will speak about liberalisation and social law and empowerment on Wednesday. Is the entire episode to tell Pranab and Manmohan his take on things; both these men are staunch supporters of liberalisation.

Those who know Sharad Pawar are calling it the man’s biggest political strategy until now. Hardly a day goes by when Pawar is not trying to make contact with leaders from other political parties. He has good relations with Mamata Banerjee, Navin Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav and he keeps working on them like a gardener tending his garden. These days he is also connected to Jayalalithaa and is in touch with Gadkari and Advani of the BJP. The jan-chetna yatra by Advani has his support in many ways. So it isn’t merely a coincidence that there has been such a direct quote from him regarding UPA-2 and the prime minister. His aggressive avatar will become more so around November 8-9. But the government is also prepared for damage control. Some of Pawar’s business associated as in Tihar Jail and some statements about him are registered in government files. Given a change, the government will not hold back from answering the attack.