Ten Janpath and Sonia Gandhi has started to feel that somewhere down the line, her control over the government was loosening and she was also having to directly and indirectly bear the brunt of the PM and his government’s failures and bad press. So a new strategy was planned, wherein 10, Janpath loyalist Puluk Chatterjee replaced T K A Nair, who had been in the PMO for the past seven years. But the PM was not ready to let Nair go, and wanted to give him a post of a state minister and make him an advisor. On the other hand, 10, Janpath wants that he be made the governor of Rajasthan, the reason being that nowadays, Shivraj Patil has to take care of double responsibilities of Punjab as well as Rajasthan. Ten Janpath is fully aware that till such time Nair is around the prime minister, its loyalist and confidante, Puluk Chatterjee of the 1974 IAS cadre will not find it easy to do what Sonia wants regarding the PMO.

Maya may have trashed Wikileaks information has hogwash, but the spy network against those officers and politicians has become stronger who have an answerability in Maya’s court. Behenji fears that someone from inside the circle is leaking all the inside information. Because the sandal episode and the food taster story is not all that incorrect.

The Gangavaram Port issue is back in news again. It is believed that the matter cost former Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh his post. That’s because the issue of making Gangavaram Port permanent gained ground during his tenure, and the board too had given it a 15-year agreement. But looks like the current minister has not learnt any lessons from his former counterpart and is getting ready to be obliged and give the go-ahead to the port anytime. But why is the Congress high command so unhappy with Gangavaram, especially since its inauguration had been done by Sonia Gandhi herself during Rajshekhar Reddy’s tenure as chief minister. Sources reveal that Jaganmohan Reddy has a big share in the port, which is being taken care of by his frontman DVS Raju. Vishakhapatnam has another port Kakinada, but only ships carrying material less than 50,000 tonne can come here, whereas Gangavaram port’s cap size is 50,000-1,50,000 tonnes. The plan to make the port permanent has been in the offing for a long time, but no central minister has given it a sanction until now, but now that the minister is ready to take the dire step, there’s nothing much one can do.

For those (Sangh) who pushed Advani to the fringes of politics, this roar from the old lion might be a new challenge. It seems like Advani is bent to prove that he is neither tired not retired. Advani says that he has consulted with Gadkari himself about the rath yatra against corruption but the Gadkari camp says that Advani had merely informed them about the same. So who says Advani is not in the fray for the prime minister’s post? But what is most surprising is that the anchor for Advani’s rath yatra is going to be none other than Anant Kumar. One can’t really digest the fact that Anant Kumar will be the one talking against corruption since the one thing most famous about him is that corruption starts from the place where he stands.

How did this calamity strike Nishank all of a sudden? Murli Manohar Joshi and Rajnath Singh have been speaking against his favour for ages but couldn’t do anything against this man who was liked by Gadkari and the Sangh. But the genie was out of the bottle when Gadkari-Jaitley confidante Arun Narendranath came out with a survey report. Nath takes care of the public opinion surveys for the party. His recent survey on Uttarakhand revealed that the BJP was having a tough time in the state. The survey revealed that of those favouring the BJP, 46 per cent wanted to vote for Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, while Nishank found favour with only 15 per cent, while 8 per cent were with Koshyari. Gadkari is now waiting for one big win and so doesn’t want to lose any state elections. And since the Shradhh will start on the 12, under which no new auspicious thing is done according to Hindus, he was in such a hurry to remove Nishank and a coronation ceremony for Khanduri.

There seems to be no end in sight to Amar Singh’s problems. After his name has appeared in the “cash for vote” scam, there has been demand that he be removed from the Parliament’s permanent committee. On the other hand, the issue of Rs 26 crore as donation to the Clinton Foundation is again rearing its ugly head. It is believed that the matter is being investigated more quickly and the crime branch is going to present its report to the concerned department for further proceedings. A lawyer, Vishvanath Chaturvedi, who is said to be close to several prominent Congress ministers, talked about the issue for the first time and had gone to the court about it, saying he suspected Hawala money being used for the transaction. The Reserve Bank had also clarified that it had not being asked for permission for any such amount and the lawyer had then complained to the ED about the same. Now that the Congress has to sort out several issues with Amar, it is trying its best to use the issue as a weapon against him.

During the debate in the Parliament this Saturday about the Janlokpal Bill, everyone from the BJP wanted to speak – from Yashwant Sinha to Anant Kumar but Opposition leader gave this chance on the big TRP day to her young colleague Varun Gandhi. Actually, Sushma had intended to have her own party’s Gandhi shine in answer to Congress’ Rahul (who had spoken on Friday). The idea was to compare the two brothers, the two Gandhis and two thought processes, so that people could compare the both and Sushma was successful in achieving it. So much so that even Advani was of the opinion that the motion should be passes as soon as possible and even stood up once for the same. But Sushma patiently waited for her party’s next speaker’s turn to come, a wait that lasted several hours; morning turned to evening but Sushma didn’t change her mind.

Let’s begin the next issue with a question whether the successor to the throne had come to talk differently from the prime minister and government’s line of thinking. Or whether Rahul Gandhi was playing the internal politics in the party and taking it to another level. As it is Rahul has been interested in a number of sports; after India’s win in the World Cup Cricket, he had arrived at Salman Khan’s home in Mumbai where the celebrations had lasted all night. But this time Rahul didn’t feel the need to go meet Anna at the venue where he was fasting. In his speech, he mentioned the “mind-changing game” and a similar game has started within the Congress. The people who were involved initially have retracted and Rahul and his entire team has hijacked the Anna and Lokpal issue in a way. So much so that Rahul spoke to the prime minister about the matter only a couple of times and among the older politicians only Pranab Mukherjee is in constant touch. Old firefighters such as Ahmed Patel have also been sidelined; team Rahul didn’t even deem it important to even take Ahmed Patel’s opinion on the matter. Which means that the Lokpal is opening up the doors of new opportunities for the new guards of Congress. Team Rahul and sister Priyanka’s entry into the Parliament’s visitor gallery is probably hinting at the fact that “Kya tez jagmagati thi quatil ke haath mein/ ab uski aastin mein to khanjar bhi na raha”.

The BJP is also taking a strict stance on the farmers’ issue and are being headed by Rajnath Singh. When Singh reached Vidarbha with the issue, Kalavati of Rahul Gandhi fame also came to his meeting. She met Rajnath Singh personally after the meeting and said that she got name and money only because Rahul had personally met her but that hasn’t changed the conditions for the farmers in the area. As many as 2,000 women like her were still going from pillar to post and haven’t found a Rahul Gandhi yet.

Differing from the party line, the stand saffron leader Varun Gandhi is taking on Anna is making him all the more popular among the youth. His tweets on Twitter are also getting a big response and his party is also being forced to give stance more strength. It is worth mentioning that Varun had offered Anna his own residence to observe the fast, and later even attempted to place the Lokpal bill in the Parliament in his personal capacity. He even went to Rajghat to support Anna. Political speculation is rife that it is time to anoint Rahul Gandhi as the next prime minister and at such a time, the purpose of Varun’s political activity can be easily understood.