Flames of hatred seem to be flaring as ‘Sushasan Babu’ (Nitish Kumar) is steadily losing the hold of his throne. His ‘power to reign’ dreams are proceeding towards a dead-end and his ministers, too, are emanating fire through their bitter words. Sources say that Nitish is now concerned over his slipping pride. He is unsure whether this BJP-companionship is an enduring one or not. If sources are to be believed, Nitish has made up his mind to back-out from the BJP alliance and is waiting for the right time to make the move.
Nitish has once again returned to the backward classes for his vote bank. In the meantime, his top-secret meeting with Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan seems like giving wings to his separation plan. First, the Vidhan Parishad membership to Paswan’s brother Pashupati Paras, and then his crowning as a minister in the JD-U government, Nitish’s decisions had a futuristic approach.
Nitish’s BJP-connection Sushil Modi is good for nothing when it comes to speaking up to the Modi-Shah duo. One of Nitish’s close-aides says, “We realised the value of Sushil Modi, in the BJP, the very day when a list of four names was sent across to Amit Shah for the Rajya Sabha in 2016. The first name on the list was that of Sushil Modi and the last of Gopal Narayan. Shah struck off the name of Sushil Modi and instead wrote Narayan’s name in place and brought him to the Rajya Sabha.”
The Nitish-BJP friendship is also being tested on the back of the upcoming 2019 General Elections. There was a time when BJP was JD-U’s junior partner. JD-U used to contest its candidates on 25 out of the 40 seats in the state and leave the remaining 15 for BJP. But gone are those days, and with the changing tide of politics, BJP is of the notion to spare mere 8-10 seats for Nitish, for which the latter is not agreeing. Instead, Nitish would rather prefer joining hands with Ram Vilas Paswan’s party.
On the other hand, BJP does not want to lose Nitish at any cost. So, all possible ways are being tested in the interest of Nitish.

Tejashwi Prasad Yadav is a fast learner when it comes to politics. He is making all the right moves, despite the absence of his father who is currently behind the bars. Filling up for his father, young Tejashwi has already started prepping for the upcoming General Elections of 2019 to give it a final shape along with the allies. Lalu’s party is in favour of sparing three Lok Sabha seats for the Left parties, of which the Begusarai seat may fall in CPI’s laps and JNU-rebel Kanhaiya Kumar may try his luck from here. Sources tell that BJP is planning on stepping back its MP Bhola Singh from the constituency, news that has made its way to Singh too who now plans on extending his support to Kanhaiya Kumar.
Apart from this, RJD is also planning on offering the Arrah and Siwan Lok Sabha seats to CPI (ML). On one hand, the party may spare 10 seats for Congress, and on the other, former chief minister Manjhi is demanding three seats – Gaya, Maharajganj and Vaishali – for his party. Sources tell that Tejaswi might agree for Gaya and Maharajganj seats.
The Yadav and Muslim votes of the state are seemingly in support of RJD. Thakur voters have also had enough with BJP which and indicate a return to RJD. The party is also trying to lure Brahmin votes by making room for its spokesperson Dr Manoj Jha this time in Rajya Sabha.

Ever since the Delhi High Court has given the clean chit to the 20 alleged ‘office-of-profit’ holding AAP MLAs, party head and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has emerged as an ‘icon of humanity’. Leaving behind all the differences, he has switched on his ‘sorry’ mode. And the story behind this sudden switch of nature is very interesting.

The beginning point of this transformation traces back to the recent past where a lawsuit was filed against Kejriwal in Punjab with regard to Majithia’s case and a date was scheduled for its hearing. Following this, Kejriwal rung up the Punjab AAP legislator Sukhpal Khaira to look into the matter and arrange a lawyer for his representation as his busy schedule wouldn’t permit him to be there. So Khaira made the required arrangements and a lawyer was sent to advocate Kejriwal in the case. After two hearings, a bill was received at Kejriwal’s end with a summation of Rs 6 lakh, seeing which the Delhi CM went into dizzy, at least that is what the sources tell.

Appalled at the huge bill, Kejriwal once again rung up Khaira – this time to inquire about the skyrocket fee of the lawyer. On this Khaira replied that the concerned lawyer’s actual fee is Rs 5 lakh per hearing, which he reduced by Rs 2 lakh exclusively, given Khaira’s reference.

Kejriwal was taken aback. He said, “I don’t have this kind of money that I can spend Rs 3 lakh a hearing. There are hundreds of such cases against me in courts, from where will I bring such huge amount? If it is a matter of mere my pride, I will apologise. It will not hurt the party in any way.”

So it was. Thus Kejriwal, from here onward, on-boarded the ‘sorry train’ on which his next stop, seemingly, is Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He is confident that Jaitley will be the bigger man here and forgive him.

The result of the latest Rajya Sabha polls has reignited the spark in the ‘saffron-camp’. But only a few are aware that there were only a few such candidates from the camp who were bestowed upon by Modi. Otherwise who could have imagined an unknown face like Anil Baluni from Uttarakhand not only racing up against BJP veteran Ram Madhav but also defeat him to score a position in the Upper House.
Looking into the history of this new mystery we come to know that Baluni was once a stringer to meagre newspapers like Kuber Times and JVG Times. With time, both the newspapers shut down and thus Baluni began gravitating around BJP and RSS’ Delhi offices. This way he acquainted Sunder Singh Bhandari.
When Bhandari became the governor of Gujarat, he made Baluni his OSD. This was sometime around 2001. It was the same phase when Modi took over the throne of Gujarat as its CM. Baluni then became the medium of communication between Modi and Bhandari. Unfortunately, Bhandari passed away and a grieved Baluni reached Modi.
Modi then appointed Baluni as the spokesperson of Uttarakhand BJP. When Modi came to power at Centre, Baluni too emerged as the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Modi never forgets his trusted aides and as a testimony to that, Baluni was obliged with Rajya Sabha.

Recent repercussions of the Uttar Pradesh elections have made the condition of the BJP as though silence has set foot into once cheerful ally of the party. But there lay many unanswered questions entangled to the saffron politics, whose identification is necessary.
Trusted sources say that before the BJPs top leadership was already tipped by an intelligence report that the political scenario may switch courts in Gorakhpur, yet neither of the BJP’s top men – Modi and Shah – bother to campaign in the region prior to the polls. In a way, they assumed the victory or defeat in Gorakhpur lies with Yogi’s political influence and power. In any case Yogi is well renowned for his differential political tactics.
However, these days, he was conducting the honor of a disciplined soldier of the BJP. At the same time, the BJP top leadership was somehow busy favouring its low-profile chief ministers like Manohar Lal Khattar, Raghubar Das, Trivendra Rawat.
There are also questions revolving around the role of the RSS in these by-elections of UP as to whether the RSS does not accept Yogi as its suitable representative. Otherwise, what was the reason that before the elections, when Dattatreya Hosabale had reached Lucknow before the by polls, he called upon the RSS cadets, in the presence of Yogi and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, to concentrate on the preparations for the 2019 elections, more than the state by polls. In this meeting, UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey and in-charge Sunil Bansal were also present.
Sources say that Yogi has mentioned several times before to his close aides that he is not receiving the true support from state’s bureaucracy in his governance. In fact, he is of the belief that since many of his officers has a direct contact into the PMO; they prefer to take instructions from there only.
Is it possible that this being the reason why Yogi transferred 37 of his IAS officers here, there? At the same time, BJP’s top leadership finds lack in Yogi’s ‘coordination and communication’.
It’s all a matter of changing tides. In Tripura, Yogi was the star campaigner of the party, but now his glow has been dimmed by own party people.

Now the important question that arises is how did Yogi’s own bastion drowned down the political mud? Sources reveal that Yogi had proposed three potential candidates to party president, and all three had their association with Gorakhnath Mutt. But the ticket was finally awarded to Upendra Shukla, which was seen as an anti-Yogi-choice, since Shukla is said to be close to Yogi’s well-known opponent and union minister Shiv Pratap Shukla. It is probable that Yogi was hence unable to take down the candidature well.
There are whispers in the corridor that after the defeats on Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats, the ‘moral authority’ of the Yogi rule has ended. So now people are internally pushing forward the name of an other deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, whose characteristics correspond to that of Khattar, Rawat or Das to a great extent.
Keshav Prasad Maurya, who had already submitted his claim to the CM post, is himself in the midst of the ‘moral authority’ grounds. He has been heard covering up the defeat by telling his supporters that in Phulpur, the party made a mistake in its candidature. Had his wife contested, the election could have been different today.

French President Macron is on a four-day visit to India, along with a group of 40 bigshot French businessmen who have come to India with an intend to invest large amounts in different sectors such as Railways, Smart Cities, Solar Energy, Civil Nuclear Corporation. Sources reveal that the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant, which is located in Maharashtra, is also prominent on the agenda of the French President who is keen to have a one-to-one interaction with PM Modi about this.
Back in 2009, during the UPA-II regime, a French company Areva SA had proposed a tender for a six-grid plant setup in India. In 2010, an agreement was sealed wherein Areva SA was to setup two nuclear plants in Jaitapur. Time passed-by and the governments in both nations changed. In 2011, when a tsunami occurred due to a leak from the Fukosima Nuclear Plant and brought along mass destruction, nuclear plants setups drew global criticism. Many self-help groups opened protests against these plants.
In the midst of all these upheaval, Areva SA was also surrounded by terrible economic difficulties and the company was taken-over by an other French company ‘Électricité de France’ and, thus, the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant was hovered by the clouds of uncertainty. But now the French President Macron is showing great interest in re-starting this project.

Meanwhile, an interesting turn came in the whole issue when a Russian gaint Rosatom (JSC Rosatom International) started showing interest in the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant. The Deputy Chief of the company visited India with his team in recent past. He primarly met with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. It is said that soon after this meeting, Russian President Putin talked directly with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi about this.
It is to be believed that the name of Vladimir Putin and Mehsin Nishir is taken in the founders of this company.
Earlier, in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Modi and the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, on August 10, 2016, Russian President Putin inaugurated the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Units 5 and 6 in Tamil Nadu via video conferencing.
Production period of the Kudankulam plant is 60 years, which can be extended for another 20 years, and the cost of electricity generated from this is expected around Rs 3.89 per unit. Russia claims that the bidding amount sent by France is much higher than the market price. And if by any chance the French company gets the job, its fate may also be that of the Raphael deal, in which opposition parties will get a golden chance to attack the Modi government once again.

The Sangh’s newly found love for Dalits is uphill, and its glimpse was reflected in the recently concluded ‘Rashtrodaya Samagam’ in Meerut. Hoardings across the city were an effort to uplift the Dalit image. Contrary to its general beliefs, the Sangh’s Dalit love was all in melody. Have a look at the hoardings, and one can clearly judge the Sangh’s state of mind – ‘The glory that Brahmins like Vashishtha, Kshatriyas like Krishna, Vaishyas like Harsh and Shudras like Tukaram have brought to the Hindu religion, similarly Dalits like Valmiki, Chokhmela and Ravidas have, too.”
The reason behind this sudden love is the Sangh’s worry over the mass conversion of Dalits, Jats and Ahirs into Budhhism. In this initiative of the Sangh, more than one lakh of its workers participated from 14 districts of Western UP.
A new chapter has been initiated in the tradition of the Sangh that more and more number of workers of the Sangh are being encouraged to eat with the Dalits. Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has himself initiated this chapter.
Another concern of the Sangh revolves around the tribals who are once again turning towards the Congress. Prior to 2008, tribal voters were inclined towards the Congress, but with an eye on a new hope, they proceeded towards the BJP. But after getting nothing but disappointment, their tilt is now once again towards the Congress and regional parties. In the recently concluded Gondwana convention, more than 50,000 tribals gathered after which a prominent statement of Mohan Bhagwat cautioning them from the regional parties.

Ever since Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has declined to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections from the Vidisha seat – given her health concerns – the party veterans are in a haste to grab the golden opportunity. Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha seat has a long standing legacy of the Sangh. It is not only the BJP’s stronghold, but also considered relatively easy and secure.
If sources are to be believed then BJP veteran Arun Jaitley may try his luck in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from here. Some of the close aides of Jaitley visited Vidisha last week to assess the blooming prospects of Jaitley contesting the election from here by suggesting his name to the local politicians and workers. It is a well known fact that Jaitley has not won a single Lok Sabha election till now, and hence Vidisha may be the remedy to his indomitable desire to reach the Lok Sabha.