Recently, Manish Tewari, a prominent leader of Congress’ dissident group G-23, appeared in Bangalore with Rahul Gandhi in an event where Rahul was to flag off the free bus travel for women. During this programme, Rahul came and sat in Manish’s car, where a long conversation took place between the two leaders. In fact, for the past several days, it was hotly discussed that Manish, who is angry with the party high command, is in constant contact with BJP and AAP leaders. AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha also used to visit Manish’s house a lot in Punjab. At the same time, it is said that Manish also has direct talks with Kejriwal. Sources say that a prominent leader associated with the Sangh had also sent an offer to Manish to ‘join’ the BJP in the past. But Manish, who has been associated with the Congress for the last 35 years, is hesitant to leave the Congress. Sensing this, Rahul has once again extended his hand of friendship to him. Manish’s personal relations with Sonia Gandhi have always been better. If sources are to be believed, since the Congress in Punjab is looking for a suitable face after Captain Amarinder. So, it wants to hand over the command of Punjab to Manish. Although Navjot Singh Sidhu has come out of jail and entered into active politics, but there is a credibility crisis towards him in front of the ‘top leadership’ of the Congress. So, in such a situation, Congress can bet on Manish Tewari in Punjab.

Ever since the sting of the Karnataka elections, the round of brainstorming meetings is going on continuously in the BJP. Just last Friday, Amit Shah, BL Santosh and JP Nadda had an important meeting with the BJP general secretaries. Actually, this whole exercise of the saffron party is for the upcoming 2024 general elections where the party does not want to appear weak on any front. The first step in this episode can be to change the state presidents. Earlier, the party had appointed new presidents in Bihar, Rajasthan, Delhi and Odisha. But many of these leaders are not able to live up to the expectations of the party leadership. In UP too, the Jat leader of Western UP, Bhupendra Chaudhary, was given the presidential innings, but the party leadership is not said to be happy with his performance either. Maharashtra and Jharkhand are also preparing to bring new presidents. In Jharkhand, the party wants to bet on a tribal face as the state president, at present former Chief Minister of the state Babulal Marandi is said to be leading in this race. Although Arjun Munda and Sameer Oraon are also involved in this race, but if sources are to be believed, instead of Deepak Prakash, the name of BJP Legislature Party leader Babulal Marandi has almost been decided. Chandrashekhar Bawankule has become the party president in Maharashtra only in August 2022, but the central leadership of the party is said to be angry with his work and methods, so the command of Maharashtra can be handed over to a ‘pro active leader’. In Karnataka too, BJP has been looking for an alternative to Nalin Kateel for a long time, that means in 2024, BJP does not want to take any risk.

Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has repeated several times in the last two months about the expansion of the Shinde government’s cabinet, but that rare moment never comes. There is a joke on this in Maharashtra that ‘if the wife has gone to the make-up room saying she will get ready in ten minutes, then what is the need to knock on the door every half an hour?’

The Chandrapur seat has fallen vacant due to the sudden demise of Suresh alias Balu Dhanorkar, the lone Congress MP from Maharashtra. Now there is hue and cry among the party leaders regarding who will be the candidate from Congress in the Chandrapur by-election. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole wants to field late Dhanorkar’s MLA wife Pratibha from here, while another section of party leaders is in favor of giving ticket to former Chandrapur MP and trade union leader Naresh Puglia. The then Shiv Sena MLA Dhanorkar had ‘joined’ the Congress a day before the nomination for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was a big ‘liquor businessman and had no shortage of money’, perhaps that is why at that time he had got veteran leaders like Mukul Wasnik and Vijay Vaditwar to his side and it was these leaders who then stopped Puglia from rebelling. In 2019, under the alliance, the Chandrapur seat had gone to the BJP from the Shiv Sena quota, due to which Balu had to leave the Shiv Sena in a hurry and join the Congress. On the other hand, Naresh Puglia, a strong contender for this seat, is one of Rahul Gandhi’s special confidantes. Remember, when Rahul Gandhi went to Vidarbha to meet Lilavati and Kalavati at their house, it was Puglia who helped both of them financially at the behest of Rahul. When a Vidarbha farmer who had invented a revolutionary seed committed suicide, it was on Rahul’s advice that Puglia got his son employed in the ‘Ballarpur Paper Mill’. A section of the party here is protesting against giving ticket to late Dhanorkar’s wife Pratibha, saying that the party should learn a lesson from the Jalandhar bypoll where late Congress MP’s wife Kamaljit Kaur was defeated and after 24 years Congress lost its traditional seat of Jalandhar to AAP.

At least twice in the last two months, NCP leader Sharad Pawar has met Gautam Adani. Anyway, Pawar has old relations with the magnates, he has a big economic empire spread far and wide. So, Pawar coming out of his shell and rejecting the JPC demand of his fellow opposition parties when the opposition parties made such a hue and cry over the Hindenburg report was a great sacrifice for his best friend Adani. Anyway, the relationship between Adani and Pawar is not of today, rather this relationship is 3 decades old. But the biggest question is that when Uddhav Thackeray has gone abroad for a holiday with his family, then one day why Pawar suddenly reaches Varsha to meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at his official residence, and the meeting between the two leaders lasted for an hour. Moreover, as soon as Pawar comes back after meeting Shinde, he meets Gautam Adani for one and a half hours. If sources are to be believed, Pawar wants to see his daughter Supriya Sule occupy the post of Chief Minister of Maharashtra, whether it is with the help of BJP or Shiv Sena, and thus Pawar’s door is always open for this.

Many strange decisions remain imprisoned in the womb of destiny. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also got caught in the web woven by the BJP and he had to leave his official residence – 12 Tughlaq Lane – where he was living for the last 19 years, due to an unwanted decision of the Surat court. Therefore, he shifted to his mother’s house at 10 Janpath. Rajkumar Sharma, a well-known astrologer from Mumbai, has circumambulated 12 Tughlaq Lane in the past and has shared many important information regarding Vastudosh there. According to Pandit Sharma, 12 Tughlaq Lane is a south-facing house, which is not good in terms of Vastu, due to which ‘negative energy’ prevails in this house. This was the reason that Congress had to face defeat for the last several years. Rahul too lost from Amethi. Congress seats in the Lok Sabha decreased continuously and many strong leaders of the party left the Congress and went elsewhere. At one point, Rahul’s recognition in the party itself was reduced to a great extent. Pandit Sharma says that ‘the day Rahul left 12 Tughlaq Lane, his rise begun.’ Congress wins Karnataka with thunder and drumbeat and its prospects look better in upcoming 5 state assembly elections. Pandit ji says that ‘Rahul Gandhi’s zodiac sign is Scorpio and the ascendant is Cancer. From December 2022, Rahul’s ‘Chandra Mahadasha’ has started which will continue till 2032. This dasha is indicating towards a positive change. May the days ahead be bright and full of hope for Rahul, his shifting to 10 Janpath during this period is also an auspicious one.

It was known to everyone even before the results of the Karnataka elections that if the Congress government came to power in the state, the crown would be on Siddaramaiah’s head. One, he is the biggest leader of 36 percent OBC castes of the state, the Kuruba caste from which he comes, the percentage of this caste in the state is also more than 7 percent. And perhaps the more important thing is that he is Rahul Gandhi’s first choice as the Chief Minister. But there was also a faction of the Congress which continued to advocate for DK Shivkumar. This group was headed by Rahul’s favourite KC Venugopal and Congress’ Karnataka in-charge Randeep Surjewala. Seeing this, Karnataka Congress MLA G Parameshwara came to the ground with his supporters and started demanding the post of Deputy CM. Sensing all these circumstances, the Congress entrusted its observer Sushil Kumar Shinde with the responsibility to ‘dispose of the matter immediately.’ Shinde hastily submitted his report to the high command and said that ‘if Siddaramaiah’s name as CM is not announced soon, then MLAs can rebel because some leaders of BJP and JDS are in constant touch with them, so they can break away with 96 MLAs out of total 135 of Congress and form their own government with BJP’s support.’ In such a situation, only 32 MLAs were left to count with DK. Along with this, Sushil Kumar Shinde, a Dalit leader from Maharashtra, who had announced his retirement during Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, has also returned to active Congress politics.

Ultimately, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had to pay the price for his immaturity as he has been sent to the Ministry of Earth Sciences as the top leadership tries to persuade him to ‘stay grounded’. Just two qualities of taker Arjun Ram Meghwal have brought him here, one he is one of the ministers very close to the top leadership. And second he speaks and does as much as he is told. Rijuju’s sudden departure was scripted when in an important meeting of the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and Leader of the Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary was called to select the new CBI chief. In the initial trends, the request of the top leadership showed that ‘why not give an extension to the current CBI director Subodh Jaiswal.’ So many questions have been raised on the extension of the director’s service, how can the CBI director be different from it?’ Then the name of 1987 batch Dinkar Gupta, who is currently the NIA chief, came up for discussion. But the Chief Justice was of the clear opinion that ‘seniority should always be taken into account in such appointments’, thus Praveen Sood of the 1986 batch was the senior-most and his name was sealed. After this, there was a mention of mutual harmony between the judiciary and the legislature in the top leadership and CJI during tea. And when the matter did ‘come out’, it went far away. The Chief Justice drew the attention of the top leadership to the statements of the Minister of the Government, where he has been degrading the collegium system. Rijuju’s statement was also very sensitive for the judiciary, in which he called some retired judges ‘Anti India’. He termed them to be involved in activities and also said that ‘these retired judges are trying to ‘play the role’ of the opposition.’ Apparently such a big and sensitive statement would not have flourished in Rijuju’s mind only? So, in the run-up to the 2024 elections, hymns of mutual cooperation were recited. Adani got a clean chit from the Supreme Court-appointed committee, SEBI got three months’ time and in return, Rijuju was sacked from the law ministry.

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Astik Narayan, a Delhi government school student who surprised everyone by scoring 100 percentile in JEE Mains in his very first attempt, became an opportunity for the AAP government in Delhi to ‘substantiate their claim that the Government schools have been rejuvenated.’ Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is on the target of the opposition these days for his 45 crore government residence, wanted to seize this opportunity. So, he told his team that he would like to present Astik an inspiring biography of Babasaheb Ambedkar. His team got to work and a book was unanimously chosen – Ambedkar: A Life, which was written by Shashi Tharoor, who is now a big leader of Congress. When this book was brought to Kejriwal’s notice, he hesitated a bit, he was indecisive that ‘by giving a biography written by a Congress leader, a political meaning should not be drawn from it. So this book was replaced in a haste with an alternative. The book was examined and the book Kejriwal presented to Astik at a function organized in his office was ‘Becoming Baba Saheb Ambedkar’ written by Akash Singh Rathore.