Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray’s issues with Manohar Joshi don’t seem to be resolving any time soon. So it is possible his ticket from south central Mumbai may be cut. The Sena leadership believes the party gave Joshi a lot — it made him the chief minister, speaker, central minister. And what did he give to the party in return? If sources are to be believed, Manohar Joshi is really getting along with Sharad Pawar nowadays. Thus, if he does not get a ticket from Sena, he might hold Pawar’s hand.

The BJP is trying hard to establish its roots in West Bengal. The party won just one seat in the 2009 Look Sabha elections. This time, the BJP aims to win 3-4 seats. A few days ago, the state’s working committee meeting was held and party President Rajnath Singh and party’s Bengal in-charge Varun Gandhi had also come to Kolkata for the same. But the party’s problem is that it is not getting genuine candidates to contest elections on the party ticket from the state. Thus, the BJP top brass is considering launching some well-known names to contest the elections. For this, party’s Central ministers first spoke to Saurav Ganguly for the same. Ganguly showed his inclination to speak to the BJP leaders, but not in contesting the elections. Ganguly said he had nothing against the BJP but he doesn’t like Modi for his fanatic image. Party leaders then spoke to former Army Chief General Shankar Roy Chowdhury. Roy Chowdhury posed the ministers with some weird conditions, including having Jaswant Singh appointed as the party’s national president with immediate effect.

One of Delhi’s famous numerologists has predicted that Narendra Modi’s star is going to shine the greatest until June 2014. According to numerological studies, Modi’s number is eight, which is an indication of his career’s peak time. It is believed that the same numerologist had advised Modi in the past that he should add another name to his full name, which is why Modi started to write his father’s name along with his own name – Narendra Damodardas Modi. According to numerology, the word Modi carries the most weight in his name. On the other hand, the same person has also predicted that Advani may take ill in the next three months. And now that the announcement for Assembly elections in five states has been made, Delhi and Rajasthan will hold elections on December 4, some of the BJP members wanted to know if these dates have any relation to the BJP winning?

Modi has made it clear in the meeting with the core group that only those who look able enough to win the elections will get the party ticket. Several survey agencies are doing confidential public surveys in these constituencies and an anti-incumbency graph is being prepared on those who have a seat already. These Parliamentarians are getting marks based on their performance as well as feedback from the public in their constituency. Those who are Parliamentarians at present but are found to be lacking in this exam will not get a party ticket. It is being speculated that maximum tickets of those reigning from Bihar will be rejected.

For BJP General Secretary and UP in-charge Amit Shah, who is considered to be extremely close to Narendra Modi, the troubles just don’t seem to be ending. First it was the CBI wanted to give him some respite. But after the statements given by Vanjara, Pandey, Singhal and a lot of other bureaucrats from Gujarat as well as U-turns by two state ministers Prafful Patel and Pradeep Singh Jadeja, the CBI has changed its stand and it clearly feels that based on these statements, the court can cancel Shah’s bail anytime and that time is near.

“Nazrein badalti hain to nazare badal jaatey hain/ subah hoti hai to sitarey badal jaatey hain”. (In short: It doesn’t take time for things to change.) The Congress-nourished machinery is now realising that the Central head is about to change. That is why a few chosen Congressmen approached the Election Commission along with the Assembly elections in the five states, mid-term Lok Sabha elections should also be conducted – of course they got a resounding no from the commission. Sources reveal that the Election Commission made it clear that it needs at least six months to hold Lok Sabha elections in the country and there’s only two to two-and-a-half months left for the Assembly elections. It can’t hold the mid-term polls even if it wanted to.

The Congress wants to hold the Winter session before its due date. Usually, this session starts from the third week of November to December 22. During the general elections in 2009, too, the electoral code of conduct was put into motion on March 2, 2009, and the Budget session conducted business for just 10 days. Sources close to the government make it clear that this time, too, the regular Budget session of the Parliament will not happen and an Appropriation Bill will be passed instead of the Budget, so that the country’s everyday business runs smoothly. During this time the President can address a joint session of both the houses, and the Parliamentarians can pass a Thank you Motion to his speech. The way the country is fast getting into an economic turmoil, the UPA government does not want to announce any such important Budget and just want to complete the Winter Session in a hurry after passing some important Bills, which include everything from the Street Vendor Bill to the Telengana Bill. And this is why the strategists in the government want to hold it earlier than usual.

India’s President Pranab Mukherjee’s biography is about to hit the markets and has been printed by Harper Collins. It has been divided into 12 chapters and some of Pranab Da’s unknowns facets of life have been touched upon. The biography has been written by a Bengali journalist Jayant Ghoshal who is with the Ananda Bazar and is considered to be extremely close to Pranab Da. A few days later, the book’s Bengali translation will be available, too. In 2014, Pranab Da’s autobiography will hit the stands after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and will be published by Penguin. This autobiography will include some information about his relations with Rajiv Gandhi that he doesn’t want to be cashed in upon before the big elections.

Attempts are being made to narrow the gap between the workers and the party workers. On the instructions of the Sangh, Modi has come up with a new plan to organise the workers better and to increase their level of commitment. Now the search is on to look for such party workers at the block level who are experienced, committed and encouraging. Such workers will then be associated with the party on a permanent basis. Such workers will get a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000-25,000 per month after the Lok Sabha elections are over. These workers will have to form small teams under their personal leadership so that they go from house to house to improve awareness about the BJP and Modi and start a party membership movement. They will also have to ensure that each voter who leans towards the BJP should have his or her name in the voter’s list. This is no new experiment in vote politics. The Congress has done similar experiments in the past and has got desired results, too.

After the Vrindavan meeting, a group of Sangh leaders went to Advani to meet him and told him about the Sangh’s basic approval of Modi’s candidature for the prime minister’s post. He was also told, “Advani ji, you are the senior-most leader, and one wrong step from you or your supports can become the point of no return. And we haven’t completely dismissed your candidature for the top post. Let the election results come in, when the circumstances may favour anyone. If BJP seats at that time are lesser than what was expected, and if the compulsions of coalition are more pressing, who will be more apt for the seat but you?” Which means the Sangh gave all three doses to Advani – warning, incentive and appeal. We still don’t know which one of the three doses worked for a politically-ailing Advani.