Congress continues to be on the lookout for more alliance partners. DMK and Congress’ relations have somewhat soured in the recent past and sensing this, the Congress managers are extending their hand of friendship to Amma before Karunanidhi. They are trying to pacify her with the lollipop that in the changed scenario, the Congress might consider supporting Amma for the prime minister’s post. Amma has anyways been going on about a Tamil prime minister for a while now. But most shockingly, the Congress got an answer from Amma that said that she wouldn’t even want to look in the direction where Chidambaram stands, supporting that party is even more far-fetched.

NCP supremo’s Sharad Pawar announcement that he will not contest the coming Lok Sabha elections has, in a way, given the party reins to his daughter Supriya Suley and nephew Ajit Pawar. This has upset Pawar’s old associate Prafful Patel because he is not ready to work under a much-younger Supriya and Ajit. So Mr Patel has started exploring for possibilities for himself with other parties as well. He has several friends in the BJP, who have started the initial work on introducing him to the BJP.

After taking over the reins of Congress’ election campaigning, Rahul Gandhi wants to emerge in front of the Indian populace in a new avatar. Actually, he wants to remove the tag of part-time politician from his resume and will be pretty active during the Parliamentary session that starts from January 5 and end on February 22. He is preparing hard to speak in the Parliament and is harbouring ambitions to pass as many as six Bills in the coming session. The young Gandhi is indeed in a hurry. But it might take a while for India and the Congress to find their groove with his speed.

Chidambaram is on the lookout for a new Lok Sabha seat for himself. He is worried about an impending loss in Shivganga. PC has already met Sonia and Rahul Gandhi with the request to change his LS seat and has said he wants to contest the coming elections from Puducherry. Taking Chidambaram’s request seriously, Rahul spoke to Narayanaswamy who is a Central minister as well as a MP from the union territory and asked him he was willing to change his seat for Chidambaram. Narayanaswamy politely refused the offer so the despondent Chidambaram is looking at further south – Kanyakumari. But his contest there will not be an easy one because this is one seat where the BJP votes are more than 10 per cent. And it is no longer a secret why Chidambaram is the butt of attack for several BJP leaders.

There has to be something that the entire Bombay Club is favouring it. Source reveal that Bombay Club’s two stellar members Anand Mahindra and Ratan Tata have contacted AAP directly, and have offered that if the party wants, these two corporate houses are ready to pay for the party’s entire expenditure on the elections and the payment will be done by electoral donations cheque. Sources also reveal that Mukesh Ambani is already in touch with AAP and industrialists such as Pawan Munjal are also speaking in favour of AAP. Are the corporate houses also looking at an image building exercise with their association with AAP?

A sinking ship is looking for allies. The Congress is relying heavily on its coalition parties for the coming general elections. The exercise is on to find new political allies and in Bihar, the last round of talks is over with Lalu and Ramvilas. Lalu is ready to give more than 10 seats to the Congress and the exercise to sway Mayawati is on. The Congress has also offered to Mayavati that if the BSP clears the way for 25 seats for the Congress in UP, the Congress will leave 20 seats in India for the BSP. These 20 seats will be in those crucial states where BSP has public sway, such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and so on. Behenji is still thinking over the offer and the Congress is looking at every possible way to have her on its side.

Raj Thackeray seems to be singing a different tune. There was a time when his rake on Modi was warm and soft, so much so that he was ready for a friendly fight with a BJP-Shiv Sena coalition in Mumbai and its nearby areas. Sources also reveal that NaMo had obliged him in a number of ways, but the Marathi Manoos suddenly changed his stance when NaMo, at a rally in Mumbai near Matoshri didn’t take the name of Raj even once. And because Uddhav was pretty wary of Raj,  he had clearly told Modi that he would have to choose between the two Thackerays. And when Raj was nursing his wounds after Modi’s Mumbai rally, Congress strategists contacted him directly and pleased him with several promises. Raj told the Congress that he will not be able to help the party in Mumbai and its nearby areas, but is ready for a friendly fight with the Congress in rural Maharashtra. Thus, the Congress script is ready to create a big dent in Sena-BJP’s votebank and the lead role will be played by Raj Thackeray himself.

Two strategists close to Arvind Kejriwal have indicated that in the coming days, Arvind may revisit the thought of contesting the Lok Sabha elections because AAP is looking up to him as the next prime minister of India. AAP’s influence over India is being looked upon as the Jasmine Revolution that took over Egypt. In the months and years, such revolutions have taken place in several anti-US countries with the help of American support. Anti-US sentiments are also gaining ground in India for some time now. The inside news is that AAP also has full American support. Upset with the Congress, the superpower wants that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi should not be a part of the electoral fight and the elections be all about Modi vs Kejriwal.

The BJP is shocked at Ramdev’s U-turn at Modi’s name. On the other hand, the Congress is all caution. Sources reveal that after AAP’s success, an excited Baba might launch his own political  outfit. In any case, Baba Ramdev is upset with the BJP High Command since the party is not ready to give LS tickets to four of his supporters. 

After sensing Rahul Gandhi’s take on the Adarsh scam, a search is on for a new Maharashtra chief minister. The names of Harshvardhan S Patil, Narayan Rane and Radhakant Vikhey Patil are in the race, and the high command is seriously considering the name of Vilas Muttemwar as well.