When senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley went to meet Yeddyurappa in Bengaluru recently, he went with an open mind and open to all possibilities. Jaitley knew that since Yeddyurappa had in a way announced the formation of his party will be done on December 9, it will not be easy to sway him from his decision. In the changed equations, Jaitley wanted to know if Yeddyurappa’s party will join the NDA after the 2014 elections. Yeddyurappa maintained a silence on the question and said he will consider it when the time comes. It is interesting to note that Yeddyurappa is upset with Jaitley and Gadkari to the same degree and is in touch with Pranab Mukherjee and Hansraj Bhardwaj at the moment. During the Presidential elections, too, he had voted in favour of Pranab Mukherjee. It is, thus, likely that he is finding a position for himself within the UPA.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari is gradually trying to pose himself as a potential prime minister candidate. The feelers could be seen this Thursday in London. When Gadkari was returning back to India after spending 15 days vacationing in Canada, an NRI friend of his in London organised a high-tea party for Gadkari at the popular Carlton Suite. The occasion was graced by all prominent NRI industrialists living in London. Anil Agarwal of Vedanta and Cairn Energy, G P Hinduja of the Hinduja Group, Prakash Lohia, chairman of Arcelor Mittal Lakshmi Mittal, Lord Hamid, Lord Noney, Allen Howard, Cyrus Vedarwala and several other dignitaries were seen. In his talks with the foreign investors and top industrialists, Gadkari has assured them that if NDA comes to power with BJP in the lead, the government will ensure there are a lot of opportunities for foreign investors to invest in India. Most Indian industrialists wanted to know if the current UPA-2 government will be able to complete its term and if there was a chance India would see mid-term polls. To this, Gadkari replied like a seasoned politician and said that the BJP was not interested in bringing down the government and if it does fall, it will be the government’s own doing. Most of the industrialists also wanted to know how serious a contender Gadkari as a candidate for the future prime minister in the 2014 elections. Gadkari chose not to give a straight answer to it and managed to smile and joke about it.

Politicians are suffering from amnesia-like conditions recently. Speaking in the Parliament, Advani forgot if he was talking about UPA-1 or UPA-2. Another name is keeping him company – that od Ramvilas Paswan, who has been going through the pains of political exile for quite some time. A few days ago, Paswan called up the editor of a famous Urdu newspaper on the occasion of Id and said, “Holi Mubarak, Mr editor!” The editor was surprised, to say the least. But Paswan was in a world of his own and said, “Wishing you a very happy Holi!” The editor just had to correct the mistake and said, “Paswan ji, it is not Holi, but Id.” Only then did Paswan realise his faux pas.

Karunanidhi is pretty upset with his two party members – T R Baalu and Trichy Shiva. What happened was that the two DMK representatives were absent from the meeting about the JPC report on 2G scam, which was exploring the connection between 12 suspicious firms from Kalaingar TV and Kolkata. The ED had given directions to investigate the same. But the strange coincident is that Congress’ Manish Tiwari asked questions at the JPC meeting to the ED regarding the companies. When Kanhimozhi found out about it, she promptly spoke to her black-glasses-clad father and told him that the people in the Congress are better than those in their own party.

Netaji is supposed to be miffed with his son’s working style. What has happened is that the officials and other people (such as Anita Singh), who Netaji has appointed around Akhilesh Singh give a minute-to-minute report to Netaji about his son. This vigilance by the father is not going down well with the son. And he sometimes has a showdown with his father’s officials. This is become a matter of contention between the father and the son.

Overcoming all the hurdles, Karnataka’s famous Lingayat leader Yeddyruppa finally got bail. He is quietly thanking the Presidential elections because of which Pranab da called him up. Dada asked for his support and assured him of assistance. Now that help has come, support will follow, too. And in any case, Yeddyurappa has been in constant touch with the Congress for the past few days. His confidante and associate MLC Lehar Singh is often seen in Delhi’s power corridors, hobnobbing close to Congress leaders. Yeddyurappa special person Karandlaje has been seen meeting Ahmed Patel secretly.

On Wednesday, when Mamata went to meet Mulayam after her meeting with Sonia, industrialist Anil Ambani was already present at Mulayam’s residence at Ashok Road. Sources reveal that after the entire drama, Anil came out of Mulayam’s house and went directly to Pranab da’s house to meet him. And yet, Anil could not get Pranab da to do anything that he wanted to. In Anil’s presence, some of Pranab da’s sources had him talk to Gadkari. During the conversation, Gadkari assured Pranab da of his support.

Why did Advani attack Nitin Gadkari and the Sangh indirectly in his blog? It is believed that a few days ago, Sangh gave instructions to Advani that he should give up the chairmanship of the NDA and give way to the new generation. Names of Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh are doing the rounds about the new chairman of the NDA. The JD(U) is against Modi’s name and if Advani relinquishes the post, BJP’s “rural face” Rajnath Singh may get lucky.

Amar Singh, who once made personal allegations against Sonia Gandhi changed tact later on and if sources are to be believed, personally wrote several letters to Sonia, apologising for the transgression. But the Congress didn’t open its doors to him Amar got in touch with Gadkari just before the UP elections and it is being said that Gadkari not only helped Amar politically but also financially when it came to launching candidates against the SP. But Amar didn’t get any mileage from the UP elections. So, he has now got assurance from Gadkari that if he merges his newly-launched party with the BJP, Amar and Jaya Prada might be taken into the BJP-fold. Gadkari has also promised Amar that Jaya Prada can contest elections from Rampur on a BJP ticket. For this, Gadkari has started to appease Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to the idea.

King Khan, who is a great friend of Central Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajiv Shukla, flares up easily nowadays. He is miffed that his staunch rival Aamir Khan’s TV show “Satyamev Jayate” is a hit, while he couldn’t even succeed with “Paanchvi Paas. He is angry that his closest friend in Bollywood Karan Johar is not on talking terms with him for the past four months (Despite that Johar supported Shah Rukh on Twitter). Shah Rukh is angry that because of Priyanka Chopra, his relations with his wife Gouri Khan have become strained. And now even his home Mannat doesn’t seem welcoming to him. King Khan is angry that Arjun Rampal, whom he picked up from the ground and helped him reach for the skies, deserted him at the time when he needed him. Now all Shah Rukh has to turn to is Rajiv Shukla, a sharp player in politics. But there’s nothing much he can do because he is divided between two friends – on the one hand there’s Nita bhabhi (the whole controversy erupted after Nita Ambani’s Mumbai Indians lost the match) and there is Shah Rukh bhaiya on the other hand, and Shukla ji doesn’t want a trivial issue to create a rift between him and Ambani family. So he is treading carefully and wants to get even with Vilas Rao Deshmukh with Shah Rukh as an excuse.