Rahul Gandhi arrived in Mumbai with eight other friends to watch the India-Sri Lanka final, that too on a regular airlines’ Y-class travel. After the win, Rahul and his friends partied the night away. The heir-to-be first celebrated the win in Worli, and then one of his friends took him to Salman Khan’s house, where they partied till 6 am.

The madness called IPL is on. But its former commissioner Lalit Modi’s woes don’t seem to end. For now he is in London with family. There are several cases against him. Sources reveal that he recently called up Vasundhara Raje and told her how an Indian industrialist, who calls himself close to a central minister, asked him for Rs 50 crore. The man has allegedly threatened Modi that if he didn’t pay up, he would ask the foreign ministry to file a few more cases against him. It is worth mentioning that the matter is with the ED.

Pawar is probably regretting using the word “Aakhein tarerna” against the Congress in the local elections. Matter after murky matter is coming to light and the association with Pawar in it, and Pawar’s heart is surely sinking. The way the 2G scam matter is revealing itself and the way Pawar connection is being established will be a matter of worry for this Maratha leader. The way the scam is connecting itself with the D-company via Shahid Balwa and Asif Balwa is astonishing and so is the chargesheet being filed by the CBI. It will file the entire chargesheet by April 25, and after which difficulties for several prominent leaders is set to increase, so much so that they might have to bail themselves out from the court. It looks like Anil Ambani may also have to pay for his friendship with Amar Singh in the past. P Chidambaram is trying his best to protect him but after all, he’s just one!

Pranab’s son Abhijeet, who is contesting the elections from a Congress ticket in Nalhati, was eager to take part even in the last Vidhan Sabha elections but Pranab da didn’t agree to it. He wasn’t ready this time either, and both father-son had a long dialogue about it. Father told son, “You are manager in a navratna company and you have a bright future. Tomorrow you can even head Sail (Steel Authority of India). Son replied, “When you entered politics after leaving your lecturer’s post, you were merely 35 years old. If you had dedicated your life to teaching, you would have become a principal in some college.” Father understood what the son was saying and anyways, Abhijeet’s win from Nalhati shouldn’t be so tough, considering Mamata is not putting her party person there. It is the fort of Trinamool and even the chairman of the Municipal Corporation belongs to the party, who Mamata pacified and convinced not to contest the elections. Abhijeet’s wife Jhumpa is also busy with campaigning for her husband. They have two children – an elder daughter and a son and both study in London. Mamata had offered Abhijeet a ticket from Trinamool but he didn’t agree to it. And now that the father has given his consent, too, he has also agreed to campaign for him. The father-son duo is set to do a foot march in the contested area on April 7-8.

Jharkhand’s Arjun Munda is tired of the bureaucracy in the state. The state’s Human Resource Development Minister Baijnath Ram just doesn’t seem to be getting along with his secretary Mridula Sinha, since she seems to be spending more time in US with her husband than in Ranchi. Farm Minister Satyanand Jha also can’t see eye to eye with his secretary Arun Singh since there are cases registered against him on everything from potatoes to tourism. The state’s Tourism Minister Vimla Pradhan isn’t happy with her secretary A P Singh and Tourism Director Siddharth Tripathi. The director of RCH Aradhana Patnaik doesn’t send any file to Health Minister Hemnath Murmu. Minorities Development Minister Hussain Ansari isn’t getting along with his secretary Arun Singh and Raja Peter who has an image of a criminal doesn’t even get to meet his secretary. It may be noted that all these ministers have, time and again, pleaded with the chief minister for a change of people on these posts, but Munda sits twiddling his thumbs as usual. But what are you really waiting for, Mr Munda?

Located on Lodhi Road in Delhi, Aman Hotel also belongs to DLF. Biggies of the country are seen frequenting the place – P Chidambaram, Robert Wadhera and Anil Ambani are regulars here. Several BJP leaders also like the place. Now DLF and son-in-law’s matter is far more peaceful; the BJP was supposed to have made a hue and cry about it on Monday. There were two views within the party on whether the matter should be raised in the Parliament. On one side was Advani and Sushma who felt that doing it would be a direct attack on the Gandhi family, while heavyweights such as Gadkari, Jaitley and Jaswant felt is came under the public domain. But the DLF people wooed its old advocate like never before and reminded of all the favours they had done him. Maybe not the politicians but the advocate was won over and the matter rests.

BCCI President Elect (he will take over from Shashank Manohar this September) Srinivasan’s problems are only set to increase. A permanent committee of the finance ministry has found him guilty – it is said that the money that was transferred to South Africa during IPL2 was not done with the BCCI’s permission. He was then the body’s treasurer and in his defense, he has stated that he did it under pressure from Pawar. Srinivasan owns the India Cement company and also owns Chennai Super Kings. There is a case against him in the Supreme Court questioning how he can be the BCCI president with such a portfolio when his own team is playing in the IPL. With a case of “Conflict of interest”, the Apex Court as well as the public’s court has to decide this.

This happened last Tuesday – Sonia started for the Parliament from her house at 10, Janpath, and was supposed to go through gate number eight. Usually Sonia ji walks really fast and the SPG as well as some Congress leaders have to run to keep up with her. And suddenly she came face-to-face with Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj who was taking measured steps towards her room in the Parliament. Rani Nehar, who was with Sonia, was probably about to go forward and tell Sushma to give way, when Sonia stopped her, saying, “She is a senior leader. Don’t do that.” Unaware of all this, Sushma took her time to get to her room and turned right. Only then did the cavalcade move towards gate number eight.

The Congress may have joined hands with Prajarajyam to counter the Jagan Mohan Reddy factor in Andhra, but there are issues here. First, Prajarajyam leader Chiranjeevi was bent on securing a post for himself at the Centre. But since he is not a member of any of the houses, it is upto the Congress to get him into the Rajya Sabha. Now the Congress has come up with another solution – why not make him the deputy chief minister of the Kiran Rao government? If so, the Congress may have hopes of another revival in the state.

Not in a Bangla newspaper, but the current chief minister of West Bengal Buddhdeb Bhattacharya has conceded in a Malayali newspaper, Malayala Manorama, that this time the Left Party may not come to power in the state. But he also said that like always, the party will continue to work for the people of the state. It is worth noting that the journalist to whom Buddhadeb spoke is said to be extremely close to CPM Secretary Prakash Karat. He had given a lengthy interview to the same journalist on his birthday and spoken how he had fallen in love with Brinda. In the interview, Buddhadeb emphasized that he had no differences with Karat and it was only rumours by the media. That means Buddha is all set to woo the party secretary even before he has lost the Bengal elections.