Jagan Reddy’s behaviour and language has left the Congress top brass seething in rage. Despite being asked to do so, Reddy hasn’t given up his travels and neither is he slowing down his political ambitions bandwagon. Congress also realizes that while Jagan may not be able to win the Andhra elections by floating a separate regional party, but he can definitely drill a hole in the regional Congress party. Indeed, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP stands to gain from this. Congress has thus started to go strict with Jagan. Whose money it really is in Jagan’s Sakshi channel is a big priority for the Customs department to find out. Teams have been sent to Switzerland, London and Mauritius and it became clear that the way money was collected for the channel was against the FERA rules. Work is on to lodge a case against Jagan. It’s no laughing matter to play with the Rajmata – Jagan should probably be realizing that by now.

After returning home from a vacation to New York, Vienna and South France, Varun Gandhi was a tad jet-lagged when he received Party President Nitin Gadkari’s call late at night; Varun has returned to India only that night. When he went to meet the party president, the saffron Gandhi found his body language and behaviour a tad strange. The president has openly accepted the fact that Varun is the future of the party in UP. But Varun feels that before he takes on his cousin Rahul Gandhi and his “Mission UP 2010”, he wants to take time out first and work with all his might on brining the party together in the state. So Gadkari gave Varun the option of choosing to be the Election President of either Assam, Orissa or West Bengal. Varun chose Assam. At a time when other national party secretaries are having to content themselves with the assistant president posts (Siddhu, Vaani Tripathi, for instance), the fact that Varun is being treated at par with seniors such as Bangaru Laxman and Ram Prakash Tripathi goes on to show his increasing stature in the party.

Bihar’s highly ambitious Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi’s political career looks like it will plunge with the recent NGO scam. Even the BJP and the Sangh Parivar is petrified with the aggressive behaviour the Patna High Court about the whole thing. Sushil has been accused of illegally making profits for his pet NGO “Samadhan Seva Samiti:. Sushil have nearly Rs 4 crore as an advance from the state’s four district offices to the NGO to convert dry-technique toilets into water-using toilets under the minimum money cleanliness scheme. In 2007, the NGO’s balance sheet shows that it merely Rs 1,05,000. And in 2007-08, the NGO fudged its balance sheets by showing a bogus loan of Rs 8 lakh and 11 thousand. Taking it forward from a petition filed by the International Human Rights Foundation, the Patna High Court has not only set up a committee to look into the matter but has also forwarded it to the vigilance section. Bihar is due to go for Vidhan Sabha elections soon and such incidents might be the death knell for the BJP party, which is trying its best to change its reputation.

What will Navin Chawla do after leaving the Election Commissioner’s post? Mr Chawla has only three things on his wishlist – either he be made India’s ambassador to the US, or a governor of a state, and if nothing else, then oblige him by giving him a seat in the Rajya Sabha. Some Congress leaders are harping on the point that it is not the party policy to make an election commissioner a governor. The country has seen enough controversy about it already. To this, Chawla retorts back sighting the example of R K Trivedi, who has made a state governor after retiring from his post as an election commissioner.

Will the death sentence for Afazl take some more time in being carried out? The President has about 27 pending petitions before Guru’s. Guru’s number is the 28th, a number that will have to wait. Sources close to the Rashtrapati Bhavan deny having even received Guru’s petition so far. On the other hand, the Home Ministry seems to be in a hurry and wants that if Respected President is unable to take a decision about Guru as of now, the file should be sent back to the home Ministry, so that other proceedings on Guru get a green signal.

After American President Barack Obama, our very own prime minister is nursing dream of getting the Nobel Prize for Peace. The best part is that his name is being nominated by Obama himself! Reliable sources have revealed that Dr Manmohan Singh might get the award in the fourth year of his tenure, which means two years from now. Now those who just want to are questioning what the PM has done in the area of peace. The answer is simple – all that the American president did for his claim to fame.

Gujarat’s SIT chief Raghavan’s new strategy has left the Modi government shell-shocked. The SIT’s only goal is to catch Modi in its trap and tighten the noose and has actually made a war plan for the same. For the case, Raghavan’s hired Mumbai’s famous lawyer K G Menon, whose annual fees alone is Rs 2 crore. This lawyer’s fees will have to be paid by the Gujarat government itself. Now the government is in a dilemma – it obviously doesn’t want to shower the same person with money who has come to create big problems for the government’s head. But it will have to do the needful since the Centre’s watching the government’ every move. It may be noted that the Gujarat government has been incapable in paying its state lawyers for the past one-and-half years. But who will go and tell Raghavan this and if Modi creates a murmur about this, there will fingers pointing at him from the Congress’s side.

M K Narayanan is probably the only governor who frequently lands up in the capital without any prior permission from the high command. He first meets Sonia Gandhi, then the prime minister and then briefs Pranabda. It seems that Narayanan never retired from his exceeding ambitions. He still goes around behaving like he was still the IB chief. He gives detailed reports to the central minister about the secret CBI report of West Bengal, necessary feedback about the coming Vidhan Sabha elections, the current situation on the Naxalism front and about Mamata didi. The Congress known that it is far more important to keep a keen eye on Trinamul Congress’s didi rather than the Left leaders and so Narayanan is getting adequate attention, too.

Before Ramzan starts, Afazal Guru, who has been found guilty of the Parliament attack, may face capital punishment. Guru’s application for a mercy plea has been sent to the President for consideration. Sources at the highest level have revealed that the President may refuse the mercy plea and return it. In that case, the home ministry will then send the papers to the session judge. Usually, the session judge passes a “black warrant”, a document that has a black border and has the time and date of the hanging clearly written on it. Looks like the terrorist Guru’s days are numbered.

Wherever BJP President Nitish Gadkari goes, he never forgets to take along his kurta pajamas. This time when he arrived in Patna to address a rally, he came out of the Maurya hotel flaunting olive green trousers matched with a light green shirt. BJP leader and a minister in the Nitish Kumar government, Ashwini Chaubey approached Gadkari and in a melodramatic voice remarked, “You look nothing less than a movie star.” Someone from behind quipped, “Yes, south Indian movie star Mammotty.” By then the rest of the politicians in the state had gathered around him and everyone was unanimous on the decision that Gadkari should address the rally not in the shirt and trousers he was donning, but in crisp white kurta pajamas. A shocked Gadkari remarked that there was no way for the same since he hadn’t brought along his kurta pajamas! Two politicians were sent to the local Frasier Road market and brought back two pairs of whit kurta pajamas. It was only after wearing it that Gadkari was presented before the people to address the rally. He will probably never forget his kurta pajamas again.