After the uproar of Rekha’s absence in the Rajya Sabha, there is speculation that following the footsteps of India’s sweetest voice Lata Mangeshkar, Rekha might resign from the Upper House, too. The head of the Republican party Ramdas Athawale, who is in coalition with the BJP at present, is advocating Rakhi Sawant for the post and is also assuring several veteran BJP leaders that Rakhi Sawant’s attendance will be 100 per cent and is taking the guarantee for the same. On the other hand, BJP leader Nitin Gadkari is pushing forward Poonam Dhillon’s name; Gadkari is said to be one of the new ardent fans of Dhillon.

Excited by public opinion surveys in Haryana, the BJP may jump into the fray on its own in the state. Although Indian National Lok Dal Party’s Om Prakash Chautala met Rajnath Singh twice in the past few days, they could not reach an understanding on sharing of seats; it is said that Modi himself is not in favour of a coalition with Chautala who is in jail. On the other hand, Haryana Janhit Congress leader Kuldip Bishnoi, who lost both his seats despite support from the BJP, is constantly in touch with BJP’s Arun Jaitley. Kuldip is asking for 45 seats for himself but the BJP is ready to give only 20 seats to the party and wants to contest the other 70 seats itself. BJP’s top leadership has proposed making Kuldip’s wife the Deputy-Chief Minister in the state and to make him a state minister at the Centre but it is said that he doesn’t seem agreeable to the terms at present.

A Cabinet minister in the Modi government was going overseas and as a matter of habit, he bought himself a business class ticket from Air India and asked the national aviation company to upgrade it to first class. But when the matter came to be known by Modi, he got in touch with the minister and told him, “This tradition of upgradation has to stop, and it costs Air India crores of rupees every year. If you are so keen on flying first class, you should kindly purchase a first class ticket.”

BJP’s Maharashtra State President Devendra Phadnavis met with Narendra Modi a few days ago; somewhere Phadnavis was nursing a hope that Modi will project him as a BJP’s chief ministerial candidate. Modi told him clearly, “I am a straight talker and want to make it clear that you should not hope for anything like that or you will only be disappointed. That is because Maharashtra and Bihar are two such states where keeping in mind the caste equations, a face from the backward castes will have to be introduced.” Ever since this became known to Bihar’s Sushil Modi, he is beside himself with joy. But is Sushil Modi the only name among the backward leaders in the BJP in Bihar?

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s multi-talented personality is not to everyone by now – she is a painter, a writer, a lyricist, a poet, singer and a musical instrument player as well. It’s not just her mother tongue Bangla, she likes to write in English, too. When she went to her favourite place Darjeeling for the 40th time, she penned a song and posted it on Facebook, “Today I am in Darjeeling, my darling Darjeeling is always very charming.” Khoob bhalo, Didi!

After the Thakur MLAs’ love for the BJP became public, some Brahmin SP members are also feeling a tug of love for the party. Sources reveal that several Brahmin MLAs are in contact with Amit Shah through a prominent Brahmin journalist of a big Hindi daily. Sources also claim that SP’s Pawan Pandey from Ayodhya, Manoj Pandey from Unchahar and Vijay Mishra from Ghazipur are exploring possibilities for themselves in the BJP.

SP’s Thakur MLAs really get along with Rajnath Singh. So on Singh’s birthday on July 10, there was a big crowd of SP MLAs to wish him. These MLAs were so beside themselves with love for Rajnath that it seemed they would join the BJP any minute. Mulayam Singh invited these Thakur leaders to his residence and asked them clearly, “Do you want to join the BJP?” The Thakur leaders were shocked and suspected there might be a Vibhishan between them. But few of them knew that Netaji and Rajnath Singh really get along – remember the Lucknow episode, when Netaji cut Ashok Vajpayee’s ticket on a mere mention by Rajnath Singh and the latter did the same for Ashok Yadav.

Akhilesh Yadav’s government’s mining minister Gayatri Prajapati has connections with Amethi. He belongs to a backward caste and has been chosen as an Assembly member for the first time. He conducted several rath yatras on a special vehicle to connect backward castes with SP. It is said that he played a big part in Rahul Gandhi’s win from Amethi. But a CD on the minister is allegedly set to make it to the market where he is being shown as making cash transactions. Even SP members are eagerly waiting for the CD because they just can’t handle how Prajapati is so dear to Netaji.

In the past, Modi had put an end to this trend in Gujarat as well. When Keshubhai Patel’s government came into power in Gujarat, he started a special bus shuttle service between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar to please the journalists. That is because there was a common complaint among the journalists that they have to make quite some effort to reach Gandhinagar from Ahmedabad. So Keshubhai Patel started a free AC bus service for them, which also served them snacks and cold drinks. As soon as Modi came into power, he made the daily bus service into alternate days, then weekly and gradually phased it out. Modi had a clear belief that while the government’s job is to work, it is the media’s job to cover it and there should be no need to give special services to the media for the same. But did Modi think about it during his election campaigns?

Om Prakash Chautala and Rajnath Singh had an important meeting with each other and the results of the same can be seen already; in the days to come, the BJP will contest the Assembly elections with Chautala’s Indian National Lokdal instead of Kuldeep Bishnoi. The BJP will play the big brother’s role in this coalition and the chief ministerial candidate will also be from the saffron party. The party may propose Krishnapal Gujjar’s name for the same. On the other hand, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Vinod Sharma and Gopal Kanda may form a coalition and if that happens, the Congress may emerge as the third-largest party in the state.