Uma Bharti is upset with the way she is being ignored by the party. So a few days ago, she went to Nagpur and met Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and told him about how she was not given any responsibility for the elections in Madhya Pradesh and she is not included in any important decisions that are taken by the party. Bhagwat assured Uma that she should go back and start preparing for contesting elections from Jhansi. He also told her that if the BJP-coalition forms a government under Modi at the Centre, she will be given a prominent portfolio. After assurances, Uma has returned back to her work with renewed energy.

After distancing itself from the BJP, Nitish’s boat in Bihar is rocking. Several prominent leaders of the JD (U) are ready to deflect from the party and getting ready to join the BJP. Several are in touch with Lalu Yadav’s RJD. It is being said that JD (U)’s current Parliamentarians, Purnamasi Ram and Mahabali Singh are ready to join the BJP. Purnamasi Ram belongs to the Dalit community and Mahabali Singh represents the Kushwaha community. A public survey in Bihar indicates that if the Lok Sabha elections are held now, the BJP may win 18-22 seats in Bihar, the Congress two, Ramvilas two, Lalu 10-14, and Nitish is in a position to win only four-six seats. This means that in the oncoming elections, Nitish stands to lose the most. Thus, Nitish wants to give the maximum tickets to those from the non-backward community so that he might manage to save his face by both the backward and non-backward communities.

The way Mohammad Adeeb, independent Rajya Sabha member with the support of SP, shoots off his mouth is worth seeing. He claims to be close to both Ahmad Patel and Sonia Gandhi. His friends say that whenever the call him and ask him, “Miyan where are you?”, pat comes the answer such as “I am leaving Ahmad Patel’s residence”, or “Sonia madam has called,” or “I am just leaving after a meeting with Diggy Raja and will see you after meeting Rahul Gandhi.” It is worth mentioning here that it is the same Addeb sahab who was also the member of the Muslim Personal Law Board.

India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani celebrated her 50^th birthday with great pomp and show on two days – September 30 and October 1. The former was in Umed Bhawan at Jodhpur and the latter at Balsamand Bhawan. The Ambani family was pretty excited about the fact that it was after 50 years that her birthday was on the same day as Dhan Teras and it is worth mentioning here that it was Dhan Teras on the day she was born. No less than 175 special guests were flown in 31 different chartered flights from Mumbai to Jaipur and were then taken to Jodhpur by road. Those present for the celebrations included Bollywood stars Aamir Khan, Ranbeer Kapoor, filmmaker Raju Hirani. Among the politicians, those present included Milind Deora, Rajiv-Anuradha Shukla, BJP’s Saina NC as well as big industrialists such as Lakshmi Mittal and Naresh Goyal. The biggest attraction was the puja that was performed. It was followed by a three-hour show by A R Rehman and Nita’s daughter Isha presented a Bharatnatyam dance. All guests were presented with a Louis Vuitton scarf at the time of departure.

BSP supremo Mayavati is on a high these days. Just like the SP, the BSP, too, conducted a public survey in UP a few days ago and the results show the BSP getting about 30 Lok Sabha seats, provided the Muslim-Brahmin voters toe the BSP line. After the survey results, BSP supremo conducted an important meeting with party members, which included several Rajya Sabha Parliamentarians. Of them Jugal Kishore gave his opinion to behenji saying that if the BSP is indeed getting 30 seats, it should consider being a part of the government and behenji should be the deputy PM if not the PM. It is believed that this opinion by Jugal Kishore got a mute approval from Mayavati.

Narendra Modi is constantly trying to find new partners for NDA. Modi is trying to appease long-time friend Babulal Marandi. Modi has given the responsibility to an industrialist from Vasant Vihar Mahesh Bhagchand (who is known to give expensive gifts to political leaders) to get Marandi into the BJP fold. It is worth mentioning here that this industrialist also has close relations with Marandi. But after several rounds of talks, Marandi called up Modi and told him that he isn’t ready to join the BJP as yet. That is because his newly-formed party Jharkhand Vikas Morcha is emerging as the only strong alternative to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. State’s Christian and Santhal voters are joining the party in large numbers. The main point is he can’t trust the BJP President Rajnath Singh at all because he can go to any extent to encourage his protégé Arjun Munda. And he had left the party because of Rajnath Singh and today the BJP’s reins are in his hands. No wonder he doesn’t even want to look at the BJP, although he may be open to post-poll alliance.

In the recent survey in Rajasthan, Congress under the leadership of Ashok Gehlot is far behind that of Vasundhara Raj-led BJP. Thus the Congress has decided to adopt the policy of saam, daam, dund, bhed (reason, bribe, punishment, divide). Understanding the intentions of the Central government led by the Congress, the Income Tax department has sent a notice to Vasundhara Raje and asked her for the details of spending $4 million through the credit card in the past three financial years. Vasundhara is no less and she is going to make this notice an election point, too. She is going to ask for Ashok Gehlot’s financial details in the last five years.

Narendra Modi continues to be a thorn in the side of the Central government as well as Congress. Sources reveal that the Congress wants to tangle Modi in legal tangles in some way or another so that his dreams for becoming the prime minister become distant. If sources are to be believed, Modi’s name may be included in the December chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin case. But the Congress does not want him to be arrested or the BJP may get psychological advantage of the same.

BJP Party President Rajnath Singh is playing his political innings cautiously. In the changing scenario, he has emerged as the number two leader in the party after Narendra Modi. But he has carved out a political niche for himself despite acting as Modi’s Hanuman. Thus, Rajnath is all set to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from Lucknow instead of Ghaziabad. And because Lucknow is Atal ji’s seat, Rajnath believes that the party can’t launch a lightweight from the constituency. He has only two names in mind for it — his own and Modi’s.

Has Dr Manmohan Singh become a liability for both the party and the government? Otherwise what is the reason he is not even mentioned in the election speeches by the crown-prince Rahul Gandhi? According to Rahul, all that is well with India is because of his mother Sonia and all that is wrong with it is because of the Central government. When this is how the prime minister is treated at the home front in India, how will the international community respect him? Pakistan has never created such terror at the border and has never before disobeyed the rules of ceasefire with such rapidity. Even America, which is used to speaking for no reason at all, is not saying anything in the matter. So now fingers are being pointed at the prime minister’s foreign tours, too.