Last week when Mamta was in Delhi and the headline honcho Narendra Modi was here in Kolkata, but was it merely a coincident or were some political moves at play here? Actually didi knew very well about Modi’s trip to Kolkata, and that he will address the business community here. Seeing this, Mamta quickly made a programme for herself to Delhi along with some of her ministers. Whenever a chief minister of one state goes to another, even if it is out of courtesy and protocol, the hosting state’s chief minister makes it a point to meet the visiting statesman. Clearly, in today’s scenario, a meeting between the both had hogged the headlines and didi’s Muslim voters in the state would have been upset over this. Didi thought it was wiser to go to Delhi at such a time.

There were arrests made in Italy regarding the helicopter scam, but not even an FIR has been registered in our country regarding the matter. The matter involves bribes worth Rs 362 crore, so can the deal have happened without the knowledge of the government? A few days ago when the Italian prime minister was in Indian on a tour, his business delegation included this one middleman, too. During the tour, the foreign ministry arranged an official meeting between the middleman businessman and the air chief marshal. The anti-corruption laws are far more strict in Italy than they are in India. That is why be it the Bofors or the helicopter deal, the spark about a possible scam flies from there first.

Ever since the state party president of the BJP, Lakshmikant Vajpayi, has announced his new team, the state party is seeing a lot of strife and unrest. Vajpayi’s own party members are accusing him and saying that his personal secretary Anoop Gupta had a big role to play in finalising the party’s new list. The party members are even blaming Anoop Kumar that he even managed to “adjust” his three women friends in the team. Fourteen such people have got a place in the team who lost the last Assembly elections by a big margin. To give some impetus to family-oriented regimes, sons of Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh and Lalji Tandon, while the daughter of Premlata Katiyar, got a place in Vajpayi’s new team. Sons of Om Prakash Singh and Ramapati Ram Tripathi have been promised tickets in the elections. Three persons of Murli Manohar Joshi also form a part of the team. Vajpayi didn’t listen to anything that people like Varun Gandhi and Yogi Adityanath had to say about the new team. So, the matter may turn a lot more loud in the days to come.

The most coveted position in the BJP is of the general secretary at present. Rajnath’s team may have four or five new faces. For the post of secretary, the names of Amit Shah, Varun Gandhi and Murlidhar Rao are already in the fray. Because Ravi Shankar Prasad is the vice-leader in the Rajya Sabha for the BJP, it is almost sure he will have to leave his post of general secretary. In the OBC quota, Arjun Munda’s name is ahead in the race. There is also a theory that he be made the leader of the Assembly leaders. Rajiv Prasad Rudy is also looking at himself as the next general secretary of the party but he may have to content himself with being national spokesperson. In the woman’s quota, Uma Bharti is ahead in the race for the name of general secretary.

There has been an increase in displeasure at 10, Janpath regarding Central Law Minister Ashwini Kumar. And as a law minister, Kumar was a personal choice of Dr Manmohan Singh. To point this out, the country’s attorney general met Sonia Gandhi recently and spewed fire against the law minister at the meeting. Apart from the attorney general, several judges also met Sonia and complained against him to Sonia. If sources are to be believed, 10, Janpath is also upset with the way the minister spoke about the Lokpal Bill and said that the government is not obliged to listen and obey to all the clauses. It is believed that Sonia herself spoke to the prime minister regarding this. Seeing the changed circumstances, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi are beside themselves with joy.

Jharkhand and Karnataka were already on Congress’ gameplan. It has achieved success in Jharkhand and now its Karnataka’s turn, where Congress manager are in constant touch with BJP rebel Yeddyurappa. The Congress had already got the news that the BJP government will not survive in Jharkhand. That is the reason Jharkhand’s governor Saeed Ahmad had already started looking for a new principal secretary by January 1 itself. Congress was already sad about Madhu Koda’s government falling in Jharkhand because for the Congress, Jharkhand was a milking cow under Koda’s rule. And it is a popular belief in the state that for the Congress, the gullible and simple tribals are a soft target. And the party plans to get them on its side through cash transfer schemes.

Sangh has, in a way, decided that in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, it will not give any party tickets to those who are in the category of 75 years and above. Yashwant Sinha realises it and well. Keeping this in mind, Sinha is already trying to get his son to learn the ropes of politics. Recently, in a “Hunkaar Rally”, Sinha presented his son has his successor. In a way, Sinha has realised that the sun of his political career is about to set.

With the Hassan Ali case, it could just be a wild goose chase for nothing. In the beginning the matter was being called as being worth thousands of crores (Rs 35,000 crore). Now it has come to light that it involves only Rs 300 crore. Sources reveal that a big part of the money with Ali belongs to a big industrialist family from Kolkata, and the amount had been willed to the chartered account. Investigative agencies are now trying to find out this money was taken to Pakistan through the Rajasthan border in the form of Indian currency.

Nitin Gadkari is ready to strike back at his opponents. He has managed to get a lot of documents against a TV channel that is supported by the Congress, on how the channel for an interest-free loan of Rs 2.5 crore. In the days to come, Gadkari may reveal more about this. Gadkari’s people are also claiming that the comment by Duttatray Ghosboley should not be taken otherwise and because of six people of the core team of the Sangh, who also decide the party’s policies, five are in favour of Gadkari’s tenure be renewed. This core team includes Sangh head Mohan Bhagwat, Bhaiyaji Joshi, Madandas Devi, Suresh Soni, Krishna Gopal and Duttattey Ghosboley. Of these, only Suresh Soni is raising his voice against a second tenure for Gadkari. He feels that this could lead to a weakening of the voice the BJP and Sangh have raised against corruption.

Once considered a close aide of Gandhi family, Maharashtra’s Dalit leader Mukul Wasnik’s exit from the Central Cabinet was surprising to many. Sources reveal the cause of this and explain that when Wasnik was in the Manmohan ministry as social justice and empowerment minister, the Cabinet had sent him a 182-page report that blamed several NGOs in India of corruption and said that they had misused the funds given by the ministry and should thus be blacklisted. It also said proper investigation should be done against them. The list named several NGOs in Uttar Pradesh and the corruption charges involved somewhere around Rs 1056 crore. Without looking at the list of NGOs in the report, Wasnik gave the orders for investigation against these NGOs and asked various state governments to submit reports are these NGOs and their activities. It was this investigation that led to the investigation of the trust run by Salman Khurshid’s wife. When Akhilesh took over as the chief minister of the state, he saw the report and handed it over the Arvind Kejriwal as a way of showing Salman Khurshid the mirror. That is because the seats of Kannauj and Farrukhabad was crucial for Akhilesh. After all it is a matter of Muslim votes and he doesn’t want Salman to shine. Sources reveal that this small overlooking on Wasnik’s part led to his ousting from the Cabinet.