In the past three years, Walmart has spent nearly Rs 69 crore in India in the name of lobbying. It will be interesting to see the list of the beneficiaries.

Rahul Gandhi is nowhere to be seen during the current winter session of the Parliament. Madam Sonia has also been rarely seen. Goes on to show how seriously those on whom the government rests takes the Parliament.

When the Parliament didn’t function for seven days straight, Pranab Mukherji realised the cause was lost. The Opposition would not have given in without a vote. The bandh was the last straw. There was revolt brewing within the Congress ranks. Five states are to see Assembly elections soon and every state has 15 per cent voters as traders, who were all talking against FDI in retail. So the government decided to put the FDI issue on the backburner until such time that they get a go-ahead from the stakeholders in the sector.

No matter how many times Anand Sharma is included in the list of haughty ministers, he is still dear to 10, Janpath. And now that Foreign Minister S M Krishna has a sword hanging on his regarding the mining issues, Congress yuvraj Rahul Gandhi himself has been saying that Sharma should be given the foreign minister’s seat instead of Krishna. And when the king-to-be himself desires it, why will not Sharma be coronated?

Sting operations on the Delhi municipal corporations had already happened in June but the deal-making market has only hotted up since. A Central Congress minister, well versed with political games, and another Parliamentarian from Delhi had a big role to play in the sting operation on Jayashri Panwar. On the other hand, important clues for a sting operation were given by a local BJP leader himself. He is considered the right-hand man of a Central leader.

This is a part of the important procedures of the US to save Zardari, and he has been sent to Dubai, from where he will be taken to London. The American investigative agencies had enough proof that Zardari’s life was in danger from the ISI. The US’ policy is to take the Pakistani president to London and the prime minister to Dubai and relocate them there. With Zardari, the US has proved how concerned it is about the safety of those close to it.

A camp in the Congress is blaming Satpal of becoming pally with the BJP. This camp claims that to get his wife Amrita Rawat win, he has struck a behind-the-doors deal with the BJP for seats in Rudraprayag, Kedarnath, Yamkeshwar, Badrinath and Kotdwar. Maharaj’s wife Amrita may contest the elections from Chaubattakhal. She is also eying the Ramnagar seat.

This may be Karnataka’s saffron party Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda’s biggest test by fire. He is a weak link in the BJP. So instead of making him contest the Vidhan Sabha elections, the party brought him through the backdoor of the Vidhan Parishad. More than half of BJP’s Assembly members are with Yeddyurappa. Now the challenge for Sadanand is to get Yeddyurappa and Shriramlu to his side. This time it will be confidential voting and Gowda is in touch with Deve Gowda. The biggest challenge Yeddyurappa faces is that if Sadanand crossed this hurdle, he may stay the CM for the entire term, something Yeddyurappa may not like.

The Congress has got a fresh survey done in Uttarakhand and its results are shocking. The results have revealed that there may be a hung Assembly in the state this time. This survey has given the Congress 28-30 seats from the present 20 seats. The BJP at present has 35 Assembly members. The survey predicts the BSP getting lesser seats and says that the number may be limited to 4. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, which presently has three seats may not get any. The newly-formed party of former armed forces people, Morcha Uttarakhand Raksha, may win 2-3 seats. Pawar’s NCP is giving a lot of tickets to those dissatisfied with the Congress. The survey says the party may open its account in Uttarakhand and get two seats.

With her political acumen, Sushma Swaraj has managed to win over the hearts of Opposition parties, the Left parties included. It was this Opposition leader’s capability that the Opposition parties’ unity remained. The Communist parties wanted to debate about the rising food inflation and about the FDI later; Sushma agreed. She chose Thursday as the say to debate food inflation and Monday as the day to debate FDI in retail. The Opposition leader had decided that come what may, a no-confidence motion should not be passed in the Parliament, even if the government was in minority. Sushma knew well enough that if there is voting on FDI, Mamata will not support them. The BSP and SP will strike a deal and the Communist parties are politically forced to not support the motion if the BJP introduced it. So, Madam Swaraj had decided that if there is a strength test, the picture will be clear even in the Adjournment Motion.