The fight is raging in Bihar BJP on the issue of new president. For the time being, in the presidential race, the names of Ashwini
Chaubey, Mangal Pandey and Janardan Sikriwala are doing the rounds. But in such a scenario, Giriraj Singh could prove to be the dark horse. For the post of Jharkhand BJP president the name of Ganesh Mishra is floating. Mishra is the offshoot of the BJP organisational leaders. In BJP, he is known to promote those traditions which in the central politics were responsible for the rise of the likes of leaders such as Prabhat Jha and Shyam Jaju.

Congress is returning to its old caste equations in Bihar, U.P. and
Jharkhand. Since Independence, Congress has always followed an
acceptable formula that if the State Congress president there is a
Rajput, then the Chief Minister’s post is handed over to the Brahmins
and on the same lines of the State president is a Brahmin then the
Thakurs have the main claim to the Chief Minister’s post. In this
Congress arrangement, the Dalits and Muslims also fit in. So now in
place of Anil Sharma, the Congress is pushing for installing a Thakur
or Brahmin on the post of State president.

It seems something is cooking between the Congress and SP these days
because on the issue of price rise as soon as Rajiv Shukla stepped
aside after speaking, SP leader Ramgopal Yadav immediately went to
Pranab Mukherjee in the Upper House and urged him that if Congress had
made Rajiv Shukla the first speaker in place of Keshav Rao then it
would have been better because unlike Rao, Shukla’s speech was much
more effective.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has these days definitely
taken up the role of the mentor of Congress prince Rahul Gandhi. In
order to reach out to the Muslim voters in view of Rahul’s Mission UP
2012, Digvijay approached a very senior functionary of a famous Muslim
organisation in Azamgarh and made him agree that if Rahul would visit
Azamgarh then this minority organisation would fully support him. In
lieu of this the convener was served well. This convener also placed
some conditions before Digvijay such as that he would speak out openly
against the Batla House encounter (Later on Digvijay did exactly like
this). Simultaneously, Digvijay would also have to oppose the ban on
SIMI that has been extended by the Central Government. But Digvijay
helped that convener so much that the secret could no longer remain
one. Other members of the organisation rebelled and the
Congress-sponsored convener was removed from various posts of that
organisation. And this but this matter gained so much currency that
Rahul Gandhi had to cancel his proposed visit to Azamgarh.

There is a lot to play in the game of politics. They won and we kept losing. Amar Singh who once made Indian politics revolve around him is now somewhere leading a lonely life. Or else could anyone simply have cocked a snook at the stalwart Thakur leader stalwart of the SP? Now the Thakur leaders caste cousin Raja Bhaiyya has also turned his face away from Amar and extended a hand of friendship to Mulayam. Recently Raja Bhaiyya hosted a grand dinner in Lucknow. In this dinner, Mulayam was appearing to be the host, he personally went around greeting the guests and asking about their well-being. The speciality of this dinner was that not only did many of Amar’s close Thakur MLAs attended it, but there were also over a dozen or 14 UP MLAs of BJP who participated in it. Later when the BJP high command questioned these party MLAs, their reply was simple: because we cannot wing the 2012 election on the lotus symbol, so we thought it more appropriate to
take a ride on the cycle.

You would have barely forgotten a gentleman called Sudheendra Kulkarni. He played a crucial role in ensuring that Advani was sent packing and he also had a role to play in the Jinnah episode involving Advani. These days he is with Mamta Banerjee and works as her eyes and ears in the Railway Ministry. Even otherwise when does Mamta find time out of the Left and Bengal to focus on her ministry. So it is as if Mamta has written a new rule on “transfer and power’’ in the ministry and while Sudheendra in his official capacity may only hold sway over a committee in the Railway Ministry, but he recently even met the Prime Minister as a special emissary of Mamta, that too regarding the Railway Budget. It is interesting that while Sudheendra is enjoying the fruits of the UPA rule, he still enjoys equally good relations with both Advani and Venkaiah. He also has a strong bonding with proud Mumbaikar president of BJP Nitin Gadkari. Recently Kulkarni became the Mumbai chief of the Mukesh Ambani group run Observer Foundation. His friendship with Hinduja is as thick as his relationship with the Tatas. And with Tatas too his friendship fructified when the Singur was a burning topic and when Mamta was opposing both the Tatas and the
Singur project. But it was Kulkarni who despite all this managed to stay close to both Tatas and Mamta. This is called political jugglery.

Varun Gandhi has always seen his cousin brother Rahul hit the headlines, therefore in the changed circumstances, he has acquired the knack of gauging which way the political wind is blowing. So he has also shown some haste in having a firm grip over the political
developments. While the BJP appears lifeless in the U.P., Varun has in the barren terrain of that very U.P. organised a number of big rallies. First Sultanpur, and then that rally of Bulandshahr in which about 35,000 to 40,000 people had turned up. After this, Varun is organising a rally in Saharanpur and after that in Jaunpur and in this way he has planned about a dozen and a half rallies. The entire Congress appears united in projecting his cousin brother Rahul as the
prince of the party. And then there is Varun, who is engaged in writing a new political chapter while swimming against the waves. And his party is busy trying to uproot him and his efforts.

When the entire Opposition was walking out on Friday during the Budget speech of the Finance Minister, in such a time there were two BJP MPs who were not agreeable with the party line. One of them was the saffron MP from Darbhanga Kirti Azad and the other was the BJP MP from Purnea Uday Singh alias Pappu. In comparison to Kirti, Pappu was looking much more aggressive. His argument was that when the Finance Minister is reading the Budget speech in Lok Sabha then there is no
tradition of staging a walkout during it. Here it would be veryrelevant to mention that Pappu Singh is N.K. Singh’s younger son. So you can well imaging what traditions he would swear by.

The instances pertaining to the flirting nature of this incumbent minister of the UPA Government are even known to the top bosses but they are unable to do anything. And Mr. Minister’s love affair is also going out of hand like his lofty ambitions. When an Indian model, with whom the Minister shares a close relationship, began doing modelling
assignments in Paris, the Minister could not control himself and began frequenting Paris. He was seen swaying to the music of the late night parties and cozying up with the model in Paris. This Minister frequents a five-star hotel in Delhi and he enters his room there from
the rear door. It is understood that a Sikh contractor who used to make all these arrangements for the Minister has got a CD made of his private moments and he is going to various news channels with this CD. But seeing the Minister’s stature, no media group is being able to muster the courage to reveal the truth.

Why only Jaju, Sanjay Joshi has also been ousted. It is understood that the Sangh has relieved him of the post of pracharak in Rajgir. Simultaneously Gadkari has also been advised to keep sufficient distance from Joshi. So the entire responsibility for this work would now vest with Vinay Sahasrabuddhe. Sangh has advised Buddhe that if he
would control his urge to find a mention in write-ups, then his journey would indeed be long.