The SP has announced his candidates for almost all constituencies in UP. So now the party is going through the phase of analysis meetings. Chaired by Netaji and in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh, six such meetings have taken place so far, and there have been some serious discussions about the 57 Look Sabha seats in UP. Every time the meeting was organised and a particular constituency to be discussed, the SP Zila Adhyaksha, the Lok Sabha candidate, and all those candidates who have won or lost from the constituency, as well as SP leaders at the level of Panchayat were present at the meeting. At the meetings, Netaji was seen having open discussions with his party post-holders about the constituencies and the candidate who was chosen for the seat was also given a chance to place his views; he would reserve his opinion about the candidate for the constituency. It goes without saying that after such analysis meetings, the heartbeats of the candidates have increased, because at the last minute, Netaji may use his veto power and replace the candidate with someone else.

Ever since BJP’s vociferous leader Rajiv Prasad Rudy has got the responsibility of Maharashtra, his feet refuse to touch the ground. For Maharashtra BJP leaders, it is a common complaint that whenever Rudy comes to Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, he takes part in the party programmes, but no one knows where he goes after that. The party people don’t even know where he stays, or they could have met him and made a case of what they had to say. But those with deep pockets in Mumbai have no problem in reaching Rudy. For instance, a few days ago, Reliance supremo Mukesh Ambani’s cousin brother Nikhil Meswani organised a big party for Rudy at his residence. Several big industrialists were seen at the party, and Rudy was seen talking to them in a friendly way.

Narendra Modi wants to pull all stops to garner maximum seats for the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He realises that without winning a huge chunk of UP’s 80 seats, it’s not possible for the BJP to go anywhere near the target of 200 seats in the polls.
So, while he himself is contemplating contesting from a safe seat from the state, he wants to field star contestants in seats where he gets the caste combination right. The name of “Dream Girl” Hema Malini for the Mathura Lok Sabha seat is doing the rounds.In this context. Modi has requested Hema to consider fighting elections from the seat where Brahmins and Jats play a decisive role. Modi feels that since Hema is a Brahmin and husband Dharamendra a Jat, fielding the “Dream Girl” could eaily add Mathura to BJP’s kitty. One just hopes that Hema does not treat Mathura the way Dharam treated Bikaner post his victory in 2004 Lok Sabha polls: Dharam Paaji barely visited the Jat-dominated Bikaner seat after winning the polls.

Narendra Modi is playing the Hindutva card to the hilt and taking help of all the wings of the Sangh Parivaar while doing so. Next month, Vishwa Hindu Parishad is mobilising the Hindu Sants to launch a “Sant Samaj Yatra” from Ayodhya.The yatra attempts to project Modi as the tallest Hindutva leader.
As part of the yatra, the sants will give discourse all over the country on Hindutva and the role Modi is playing to further the Hindutva cause. VHP sources say that the yatra will cost over Rs 35 crore. To make sure that the yatra faces no financial hurdles, Modi’s well-wishers have already given a huge chunk of this amount as “advance’ to the VHP!

There have been changes in Rahul’s core team in the past few days. Including Meenakshi Natrajan, several of those considered to be close to Rahul are being shunned, so such politicians have neither got a place in the current Cabinet, now have they been adjusted in the organization. Among those that include Rahul’s new advisors, there is Kanishka Singh and Bhanvar Jitendra Singh. Apart from that, there is Sachin Rao, Madhusudan Mistry and Harish Choudhury, who have become the favoured faces in Rahul’s core team.

A college mate of Nitish Kumar, and a former IPS officer Kishore Kunal, was made the administrator for Bihar Rajya Dharmik Nyas Parsihad and later the director seven years ago, right after Nitish Kunar took over the reins of Bihar, was made the state minister. Today he is so upset with Nitish that he met his political arch rival Shatrughn Sinha in Gandhinagar. The Bodh Gaya Temple and Mahavir Temple, which comes under the control of Kunal, both are under terrorist threat. Despite a terrorist attack in Bodh Gaya, Nitish Kumar has given no extra security to the Mahavir Temple. Kunal has told Modi that the first step into Bihar will be into Patna’s Mahavir Temple. Throwing caution to the winds about Nitish being upset about it, he is praising Modi on a public platform.

The head of National Investigation Agency (NIA) N R Vasan is due to retire in the next few days and there is a run for the position among many. Vasan is an IPS from the 1980 batch of Andhra cadre. For now, two names are topmost in the fray for his position. These are IPS officer Sharad Kumar from Haryana cadre of the 1979 batch, who has also been Haryana’s DGP (crime) and is currently DG (jail). His name is being supported by Haryana’s Chief Minister Hooda. Kumar belongs to Bareilly in UP. Because of this he also has a good relationship with the Congress. Sharad Kumar’s biggest adversary in the race for NIA’s top post is K Salim Ali, an IPS from the 1978 batch of Manipur-Tripura cadre. Salim Ali was DGP Tripura and is currently an additional director in CBI. Salim Ali is counted among the capable officers of the country and, as a result, is liked by 10 Janpath. But his problem is that IB’s director Asif Ibrahim is also a Muslim, and if he is made the NIA chief, the BJP may make a big issue of it. Prakash Mishra, the chief of Odisha Police is also in the fray, and is an IPS officer of the 1977 batch and has worked as an additional DG with the NIA in the past. He was also responsible for the investigations regarding the Samjhauta blast. Where Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is concerned, he wants to see Aroop Patnaik, an IPS officer from the 1979 Maharashtra cadre as the next NIA chief. But Patnaik’s problem is that the former Home Secretary R K Singh had made some negative remarks about him on his way out. So the top post may not be so close to him.

UP’s Congress In-Charge Madhusudan Mistry is one of Rahul Gandhi’s favourite. Rahul is a big believer in his election management. In 2009, Mistry had givens tips and shared secret mantras with Congress candidates from all over India and also taught them how to win an election. But he himself lost the election in the 2009 election from Gujarat. But that didn’t come in the way of Rahul’s confidence in his administration skills and he kept advancing in the Congress party. When Mistry managed to clinch a win for his party in the Karnataka Assembly elections, the responsibility of UP was taken away from Diggya Raja and given to him. But he has had to struggle to understand the caste politics in the state. He is also having to struggle trying to understand rural UP people and the local Congress leaders are taken aback with his strange looks. A lot of people find him resembling Albert Einstein, while some call him a tribal. In a place such as UP, where the language changes every two km, Mistry is struggling to communicate with the local workers. He has let this problem be known to Rahul, too.

If you want to see a man hard at work at a ripe old age, have a look at Lal Krishna Advani. He has risen above getting upset and their relenting and is now looking at Modi straight in the eye. That the BJP’s core committee meeting this Thursday in New Delhi, he attacked Modi directly a number of times. For instance, when Modi announced that this time the ticket will be given to strong candidates who are sure to win elections, Advani retorted that the person’s image will be very important before they are given a party ticket. Modi said focus will be given to the results of elections at the five states and Advani kept talking about diversification. He said our chief ministers have a clean image in the states where the BJP is in power, and their image should be kept clean during the elections. When Advani went to Nagpur, he gave a big copy of grievances about Modi to Mohan Bhagwat. Bhagwat said, “Rajnath is about to come here, there will be talks to him about this.” But Advani wanted to know why Bhagwat won’t talk to Modi directly. So Bhagwat replied, “That is now the Sangh’s policy; it doesn’t interfere directly with the party’s matters.”

Several names of heavyweights were in the fray for the vice-governor’s post in New Delhi, but Najeeb Jung defeated them all and seized the post. During his IAS tenure, Jung retired as the oil exploration secretary. He always got along well with Ambani, so he promptly got a post of Reliance’s oil company’s London’s office as the vice-president. His friendship with Salman Khurshid also bore fruit, and he became the vice-chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia due to Khurshid’s efforts. And his closeness with Mukesh Ambani also remained. So the vice-governor’s post became a little more achievable due to his friendship with Ambani senior.