Advani was shown black flags during his Punjab lap, which was unforeseen, because there is a coalition government between the BJP and the Akali Dal there. The main reason for the flags was that Advani had supported Operation Blue Star in his book. This was also the reason he was not offered a saropa at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. There has been a souring of relations of sorts between the BJP and the Akali Dal over Advani. But the Akalis has clearly stated that they can’t support Advani at the risk of irking the people of Punjab.

Advani’s much popularised Jan Chetna Yatra is about to come to end. As many as 5,000 chairs were placed for Advani’s speech at Dhampur, Bijnor, in Uttar Pradesh. But only 10 per cent of the seats were filled. Advani turned to Anant Kumar and said, “Simply ridiculous.” Since there is a BJP government in Uttarakhand, all preparations were done to get enough crowds. People were stuffed in government buses and enough people were there only when the state government used its entire machinery.

Yaddyurappa is back from jail and wants to be reinstated in the party. He feels that the time has come for him to be made the party president of Karnataka state. To get his desire met, he sent his dear Sadanand Gowda to Advani. But Yeddy’s arch rival Anant Kumar’s ambitions stood in the way here. Advani gave no clear answer on the same and said that the party will think about it after the winter session of the Parliament gets over. So Yeddy sent his request to party President Gadkari, who has come out in the open supporting Yeddyurappa. Gadkari feels that state party president’s appointment has nothing to do with the Parliament session.

The Congress has already started its endeavours to weaken the BJP’s roots in Karnataka. The Congress managers are in constant touch with Bellary leader J Shanta and BJP leader S Pakirappa from Raichur. Both these Parliamentarians belong to the Valmiki Naik community. It is believed that the first to lure them was Congress leader Deshpande (Prafful Patel’s samdhi). Then they got both these leaders to speak to Pranab da, who has in a way assured them that they can get a ticket from the Congress for the next elections because they will be backed by the party now.

The BJP’s stance during the Parliament’s session could be a strict one. Sushma Swaraj will herself take on the responsibility of speaking on the Lokpal Bill. If Advani does not speak about the black money, Varun Gandhi may do it as the first speaker on the issue. Yashwant Sinha will speak about the rising cost of living. The BJP may also raise questions on the FDI scam. The party may also take a tough stand on the Land Bill. Apart from that, BJP’s youth leader Varun may also speak about the recent killings of RTI activists.

During the monsoon session of the Parliament, several such incidents took place that showed a clear break in the relation between Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj. A lot of disturbance happened during Swaraj’s take on Telengana, and in reply Sushma tore through Rahul Gandhi’s speech on the Anna issue. She also raised several questions on Speaker’s decision to give time to Rahul Gandhi. Then Sushma also loudly raised the issues of chief secretary’s post in Lok Sabha secretariat. But it looks like Meira Kumar is trying to assuage Sushma’s anger. For starters, she gifted the Opposition leader a lovely sari for Diwali. Then she gave daily newspapers a big chance to carry pictures of her warmly holding Swaraj’s hands – just before the winter session starts. All so that at least this session passes peacefully.

Ajit Singh has finally agreed on 40 seats. He had a crucial meeting with Digvijay Singh on Thursday. It is believed that Diggy Raja has offered him a place in the Central ministry. Ajit has initially been offered the ministry of water resources but Ajit had turned it down. Now the offer is hovering around two-three ministries – aviation, commerce and industry may become two entities, and agriculture may be separated from food and consumer affairs. The decision lies with Ajit now.

A significant ruling will be passed by the Nagpur High Court on December 12, and which could decide the political future of Nitin Gadkari. It can also decide whether Gadkari will get another term as party president or not. Yogita Thackrey’s family is all out to wage war. But the Congress doesn’t want to give it too much importance because Gadkari suits the Congress as a BJP president. December 12 is also the birthday of a significant Maharashtra politician – Gopinath Munde. But it is pure coincidence that the day has nothing to do with Munde and Gadkari’s one-upmanship.

Pranab da has a short fuse nowadays. Headed by Meira Kumar, when an all-party meeting was on at the Parliament’s library, Communist Party’s Vasudeb Acharya asked some questions about the pension regulation, Pranab da got upset and said, “If you have some questions about the merit of the bill, do it in the Parliament – this is a meeting.” When Lalu spoke about making the names of those having accounts in Swiss banks public, Pranab da curtly replied, “The arrangement we have with the Swiss government is that we can pressurise the account holders to pay taxes on the money, but we can’t register a case against them in the court.” When Lalu was not satisfied with the answer, Pranab da got irritated and replied, “What have the past governments done about the black money?”

After showing his anger to the UPA government about the raising petrol prices, Mamata Banerjee has finally thrown in the towel. It is believed that in the days to come the Central government may announce a financial package of Rs 19,000 crore to West Bengal. This financial bailout is more important to Mamata than her other intentions.