Dissatisfied politicians from the BJP in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar held a secret meeting and have decided that none of them will give individual bytes to the media from now on, and only joint statements will be made. Sources reveal that the meeting was attended by BJP’s candidate from Patna Sahib Shatrughna Sinha, R K Singh from Ara, and former finance minister Yashvant Sinha. Sources say that daggers are drawn between the father-son duo, Yashvant and Jayant Sinha. It is believed that both had a big argument a few days ago, where Jayant put the blame of his dwindling political career squarely on the shoulders of his father, Yashvant Sinha. At the same time, Shatrughna Sinha is lobbying aggressively for a seat for his wife Poonam Sinha in the Rajya Sabha. Sources say he has spoken to Lalu and Nitish individually about this. If sources are to be believed, Shot Gun is not keen on contesting the next Lok Sabha elections either. He has made it clear to those near and dear to him that he wants to live a peaceful life away from politics.

An extremely reliable source close to the SP claims that considering the coming Assembly elections in 2017, netaji has prepared a blueprint. According to this blueprint, the process of choosing candidates for those 177 seats where the SP lost during the previous Assembly elections is in its last round. After the MLC elections in February-March, the announcements of likely candidates for these 177 seats may be made any time. Analysis of the remaining seats will be done after the presentation of the budget for the state. A screening committee will be formed under the leadership of Chief Minister and UP SP’s state head Akhilesh Yadav. Apart from the chief minister, this committee will include prominent party leaders such as Professor Ramgopal Yadav, Shivpal Yadav and Arvind Gop, and netaji’s decision will be binding on all. The anti-incumbency factor is working against several MLAs. The tickets will be decided after keeping this in mind, too. Thus, the final list of candidates may be made by October-November next year, so that the candidates have at least five to six months to prepare for the elections.

SP Supremo Mulayam Singh has already pulled up his socks for the state Assembly elections due in 2017. Sources say that the SP chief commented in one of the party’s core meetings that the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh will neither be contested in the name of development, nor in the name of communalism or religion. That is because the BJP tried this experiment in Bihar and failed miserably at it. So according to netaji, the next election will be contested on the basis of local issues; where law and order will emerge as the most important issue. Thus, netaji has told his son to pay extra attention to law and order in the state; somewhere in his heart, he also realizes that the law and order situation in UP has never been worse. Sources say that netaji has also warned those close to him, by referring to a report which says that if the elections happened just now, the BSP will win 150-160 seats, the SP 70-80, the BJP 60-70, and the Congress may get 50-60 seats. But it took too long for you to smell the coffee, sir.

Lalu Yadav has decided that he will get his wife Rabri Devi to the Rajya Sabha in 2016. And because she is a former chief minister, she might be given a type-8 bungalow in Lutyen’s zone in New Delhi. It is worth noting that it has been the venue for Lalu’s political activities in the past in the capital.

In his new Cabinet, Nitish Kumar has paid extra attention to caste equations. The focus has been to give importance to backward castes. Just like the tickets to contest elections were distributed keeping in mind the castes, the ministers have been made in the same proportion, while also paying attention to social engineering. Those from forward castes have seen their wings clipped, and Nitish has clearly paid more attention to the voice of Lalu than his own conscience. That is why despite his best efforts, he couldn’t make Shyam Rajak a minister, who had joined his party after deserting Lalu’s. And although Lalu ji may have made his reliable Abdul Baari Siddiqui the finance minister, but instead of using the Sushil Modi formula of making him the deputy CM, he has got his son made the deputy CM. The Muslim community is not happy about it, though. At the same time, Mudrika Prasad, a prominent Yadav leader who is also RJD’s secretary, has not been made the minister. On the other hand, Jai Prakash Yadav, who has won the elections for the first time, has his brother Vijay Prakash as a minister. Lalu, who has a knack for understanding the unsaid and reading the unwritten writing on the wall, still has four seats from his quota vacant. Congress, on the other hand, has not made anyone from the backward caste a minister, and one of its seats, too, is vacant. Nitish’s social engineering is sure to get more refined in the days to come.

Modi, who made claims that were supposed to be as strong as steel, is seeing steel industrialists slip further into despondency. Essar financial troubles just keep mounting, while Jindal is in the same soup. Steel companies of NRIs are also facing the heat, while several are facing the fear of bankruptcy. News about S P Hinduja committed suicide over a failed love affair became public, but the reality could be completely different. Swaraj Paul’s son Angad Paul’s death is also being called a suicide, because the company being headed by Angad, Caparo Company was under financial distress. It is said that Angad was very disturbed about this fact.

It is not just Shah, also on target of BJP dissidents is Modi government’s all-powerful Arun Jaitley. Their argument is that Jaitley had a big role to play in Bihar’s loss. Team Jaitley was proactive in Bihar’s election preparations, and apart from Shah, the reins of Bihar’s elections was in the hands of Jaitley’s reliable people such as Bhupendra Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sushil Modi and Anil Jain. Modi government is also facing a lot of flak because of Jaitley’s economic policies. He has been unsuccessful in reining in the endless rise in cost of living. There are also whispers about changing his department. The dissidents are demanding he be given a less crucial ministry. But the real test is for the prime minister and how he will manage to save his dear friend during these trying times.

It is believed that Arun Shourie wrote the collective complain on behalf of all dissatisfied veteran party leaders and that he got the inspiration for this after meeting with Prashant Kishore. On the other hand, in the exercise to placate these leaders, Arun Jaitley, who is believed to be Modi’s Chanakya, met with Murli Manohar Joshi, and then with Lal Krishna Advani. The excuse to meet with these leaders, however, was to invite them for his daughter’s wedding. It is worth mentioning here that Jaitley’s lawyer daughter’s wedding has been fixed with her colleague who works in the same law firm. But sources also reveal that on the pretext of inviting these leaders for his daughter’s wedding, Jaitley has opened the doors for dialogue, and has also assured them of giving a serious thought to the demands by these veteran leaders as a way for damage control.

ED’s investigations have led to the charges becoming more serious against P Chidambaram. Sources say the ED’s investigations have also revealed that apart from investing in a chain of eye hospitals, Chidambaram has also invested money in hundreds of crores in a Congress-nurtured TV channel. The investigative agencies are now trying to get to the bottom of the matter.

A joke is going viral on the net nowadays. It goes something like this: Which prime minister got the most Sahitya Academy awards? There’s just one answer: Narendra Modi. That is because the line of those returning Sahitya Academy awards is only growing, and the latest to join the line is Kashinath Singh.