In its investigations, the CBI constantly kept asking IB’s Special Director Rajendra Kumar where they got the news about Ishrat Jahan being involved with a terrorist outfit. Then it was found out that the news came out from the terrorist group LeT itself. With its efforts, the IB had placed its spies within the organisation. When the IB compiled a list of Indians who are operatives for LeT in the country, it included Ishrat Jahan’s name, too. After that, the IB had been keeping a constant watch over Ishrat. In the same vein, when Ishrat went with Javed Shaikh to Faizabad, that is Ayodhya, they stayed at a hotel where they registered themselves as husband and wife. After a series of incidents, investigative agencies suspicions about Ishrat only became stronger.

BJP’s Bhishma Pitamah L K Advani, who is forced to a life of exile at present, is now witnessing his dreams of contesting from Bhopal go to seed. That is because party’s prominent leader and Parliamentarian from Bhopal Kailash Joshi has threatened to revolt. Joshi has made it clear to the party that if he does not get a ticket from Bhopal, he will contest the election as an independent candidate. Advani camp believes that a group of BJP and Sangh leaders who want to rub Advani’s nose to the ground are behind veteran leader Joshi’s sudden displeasure.

In a way, it was almost decided that Choudhury Virendra Singh will be made the minister at the Centre. He was even informed about the recent changes that were in the offing at the Cabinet level. Sources also reveal that he had been assured about the same by the PMO as well. So, dressed in a new suit, poor Choudhury was all set to enter Ashok Hall, when on Sunday morning at 10.45, there was a call from Ahmad Patel saying, “Sorry you could not be adjusted this time.” At 10.50 am, there was a phone from the prime minister expressing regret. But Bhupinder Singh Hooda called at 11 am congratulating him! Choudhury sa’ab didn’t understand if Hooda really didn’t know that he didn’t get a place in the Cabinet or was he just rubbing salt on his wounds. In any case, Choudhury sa’ab’s farewell from Uttarakhand was no less embarrassing. No less than 22 Congress Assembly member had written to the high command that they don’t want Choudhury as the party leader in the state. What all Choudhury sa’ab is having to bear.

Amar Singh is joyous — he has made a direct connection with 10, Janpath. After all, he has got the company of a fellow-caste leader Digvijay Singh. Sources reveal that Diggy Raja played a significant role in getting Amar meet Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Amar met Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka and cleared the air about misunderstandings in the past. The result of this was there for all to see during the UPA-2 dinner, where Amar was sitting in place of Defense Minister Anthony and sitting next to Jaya Prada was deep in conversation with the PM and Sonia. Seeing Amar’s magic, Anthony left his seat and sat behind the table, as Amar rattled off the entire political menu, which had had learnt by heart.

Pranab da’s son Abhijit Mukherjee is on the lookout for a new Parliamentary seat for himself. He managed to win the Jangipur seat this time but that was because Mamata was on his side. In the new changes, big Muslim areas have been added to the Jangipur constituency and the seat will have a different perception this time because of the vote bank. Cricketer turned Parliamentarian Azharuddin wants to big adieu to Moradabad and wants to contest elections from the Jangipur seat. He has even met Rahul Gandhi about it and put forward his request.

The list of Congress leaders unhappy with the party’s Chief Minister in Uttarakhand Vijay Bahuguna is only increasing. If sources are to be believed, about 17 Congress leaders (which includes Assembly leaders as well) have put their opinion known to the high command. They are not happy with Bahuguna’s leadership and maybe that is the reason Congress state president has still not been chosen. Harish Rawat camp and chief minister’s camp are of the common opinion that state health minister Surender Singh Negi is the right choice. But Negi just won’t let go of his minister’s post. So for now the matter has been given to Rahul to handle and the state party’s reins will be in the hands of whoever he decides.

Sharad Pawar’s stars are not aligned well at present. Neither politics, nor cricket seems to be working right for him. Stinging from the Srinivasan bite, Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar seems to be gathering trouble on a daily basis. In this time of lack of political goodwill, Pawar wanted to do some spadework for his daughter Supriya Sule’s political career. But Supriya’s trouble is that instead of Maharashtra’s politics, she wants to concentrate on Delhi. To weaken his nephew’s power and hold in Maharashtra government, Pawar had accepted resignation of all the RKP, because a majority of them were Ajit supporters. Instead of them, Pawar has included those who support Sule in Chavan’s Cabinet. But Ajit has made a positive impact among the Marathas, and people are also impressed by his party building tactics. Ajit may have a big mouth, may exaggerate but he is hard-working. At the same time, he suffers from insecurities and even feels insecure of his juniors.

SP Supremo Mulayam Singh is said to be under extreme family pressures at present. That is the reason he is giving vague quotes to the media nowadays. A few days ago in Lucknow, he told the press that he hasn’t even met Akhilesh for 15 days. Sources reveal that there is pressure on Mulayam from his second wife, who is Prateek Yadav’s mother, that he should make her son Prateek contest the next Lok Sabha elections. Prateek is not very interested in politics and has a real estate business. Whatever remaining time he has, he spends in body building. Now Netaji’s worry is that he has already announced all the SP candidates from UP for the elections. To give Prateek a seat in a Yadav-majority constituency would mean cutting off some SP heavyweight but he will have to do it for the love of his son.

People from the Advani camp who did not attend the BJP’s working committee’s meeting in Goa citing different reasons, didn’t bother Modi too much. Actually, Modi’s biggest worry is about UP, where he fought several voice and made Amit Shah the head of the party. Modi knows the relevance of each leader in UP. He also knows that the young party leader Varun Gandhi not only has his finger on UP’s pulse but also has the power to change the political winds in the state. So, just four days before Varun left for foreign lands, Modi called him up and invited him to come to Gandhinagar. This meeting of the two may probably take place after Varun comes back to India. Varun went to Switzerland with his wife on June 4, and will reach London after a week. By then mother Maneka Gandhi will also have reached London, and the family will spend a week in London and be back in India on June 18.

Senior journalists, especially those from regional newspapers are getting more and more upset with the prime minister’s media advisor Pankaj Pachauri. Journalists who are travelling with the prime minister on his foreign tours are not happy with the high-handedness of the way Pachauri is handling things. In the real sense, Pachauri is suffering from a bureaucratic hangover. While the PM’s former media advisor Harish Khare would stay with the journalists in their hotel, Pachauri chooses to stay where the PM is staying. Khare would maintain contact with journalists who had travelled with the PM for at least four times, as well as meet them at the hotel. Pachauri, on the other hand, is only paying attention to a few select English newspaper representatives. He has an impression of regional, especially Hindi newspapers, to be lesser than English media. In the past, too, Pachauri banned a significant newspaper agency NTI for a small error. The matter was taken care of after personal intervention by the prime minister. Pachauri has the blessings of the most efficient bureaucrats of the PMO – Pulak Chatterjee as well as National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon. Even then, due to Pachauri’s behaviour, the PMO is getting more negative publicity than positive.