If one was to talk about the price paid for entering the Rajya Sabha, then centre minister Anand Sharma had to shell out the maximum– Rs 96 crore. How? Consider this: Anand Sharma gave his consent for “Leather Fashion Technology Institute” in Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s constituency in Rajasthan in a mere 15 days. To top it all, the crucial question on financial distribution also came within these 15 days. To return the favour, Gehlot made it easier for Sharma to walk into the Rajya Sabha. It may be remembered that the Punjab government has been relentlessly asking for permission for just such an institute in the state. The government has even made a formal proposal for the same to Sharma’s ministry but he hasn’t relented so far.

Despite its strong Congress connection, the Jindal Group was in for a rude shock. In its June 18 ruling, Indian government’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to book a case against Jindal Power Ltd under the Environment Protection Act. The case involves the company’s power project in Tamnar in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district. This coal based power project of 2400 MW was to be started in the Bahul adivasi area of Tamnar. A local NGO called Jan Chetana went to the court against the project and the case about the same has been registered in the court. Jai ho, Jairam!

The master of political games Amar Singh just can’t seem to get it right nowadays. So excited was Singh about the Peace Party at the Dumuriyaganj mid-term elections that he spoke about it on all his forums – from the blog to SMSes. And then the same people who got Singh’s SMSes were sent text messages from the Peace Party saying they have nothing to do with Amar Singh. Now the Thakur had no place to hide.

Ram Jethmalani has somehow managed to save face and has been included in the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. However, he should convey his heartfelt thanks to the Marxists who were absent just before the voting took place. The reason for the same is equally interesting. Kolkata industrialist Santosh Bagrodia was also contesting for the seat from Rajasthan. Now, Bagrodia happens to have a lot of tea estates in the state (near Darjeeling), where the tea trade unions are very effective – and controlled by the Marxists. By their absence, the Marxists have indirectly aided a BJP person and given a sign to the Congress Party that the BJP is no longer one they earlier didn’t even touch with a barge pole.

Congress chief secretary Digvijay Singh might be away from Delhi, but Delhi is never too distant from him. He has been Rahul Gandhi’s eyes and ears for a long time and has managed to have an upper hand in party politics for a long time. He is currently in the US for the treatment of his wife, but sitting there he managed to get his prodigy Avinash Pandey into the Raja Sabha. He’s already enrolled his close friend Parvez Hashmi into the upper house. If there’s someone you can learn the political equations from, it is Digvijay.

The CPM leaders are quite surprised at the strong stance taken by their leader Vrinda Karat and the Yechury camp has gone ahead and given a new nickname to Vrinda, that of CPM’s Uma Bharti. Now Vrinda is not that aggressive, is she?

No matter what political upheaval Narain Dutt Tiwari may be undergoing, his OSD when he was Governor, Aarendra Sharma, has found a new way for himself. With the help of the BJP, he is trying to come to the Rajya Sabha from U.P., no matter how hefty a price he may have to pay for this.

Chaudhary Ajit Singh has changed, particularly so in the last one year, ever since his son Jayant has become active in politics and has been enthusiastically taking part in the party and parliamentary affairs. And no matter how dear they may have been to the Chaudhary earlier, no longer do the woman leaders of the party can dare to meet the Chaudhary when he is alone. All the women leaders of the party have been given strict instructions that no matter who among them has to meet the Chaudhary, they should be accompanied by a male member.

A corporate war like situation has emerged in BJP on who would be the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. In this entire matter, Raghuvar Das, who was carrying out the duty of Deputy Chief Minister in the Soren Government has emerged as the biggest player. He is being backed by the biggest industrial house in the country. Mukesh Ambani’s confidante and Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Naithani has left no stone unturned in creating an atmosphere in favour of Raghuvar Das. Das has also got the support of the Vaish community in BJP and this segment is being led by Ramlal. So much so that even the president and Ananth Kumar were inclined towards Das. But Rajnath Singh and party were
firmly backing Arjun Munda. Perhaps this is why, Rajnath’s entire effort was on getting the opinion of the MLAs. The Thakur leader knew that in Jharkhand, — of the — saffron legislators were in favour
of Munda and BJP’s alliance partner JD(U) was also openly favouring Munda.

In Jharkhand, BJP missed installing its member as Chief Minister by a whisker. Actually, the BJP leaders were unable to arrive on any name by consensus. There were as many caps as camps. While Rajnath Singh was openly supporting Munda’s name, BJP’s entire Bania lobby was rooting for Raghuvar Das. In such a scenario, there was no one to take the name of the prime contender Yashwant Sinha, except for Advani, who firmly stood behind him. Sinha who had raised the slogan of `Our own Government, own CM’ was the one who did not allow the formation of a Government. His argument was that this would be a corrupt Government and it would tarnish the image of BJP and there was also no guarantee on how long the JMM would support a BJP-led Government. So in the fight between the monkeys, the wily political cat of Soren ran away with the opportunity.