Despite all goodwill gestures from Sonia Gandhi, Mamta Banerjee has started a non-proclaimed war against her. Mamta somehow feels that all rebellious Congress leaders in West Bengal somehow have the blessings of Sonia. So no matter how much Sonia wants, Mamta is not ready to organize a rally with her, while she is not only sharing the stage with Manmohan Singh but is also addressing rallies with him. And while all banners, posters and election publicity material have a picture of Manmohan Singh smiling, the publicity matter doesn’t feature Sonia.

The second-generation BJP members agree on this – Advani should now retire from politics. But Advani is no green thumb and is using pressure tactics through the Vivekananda Foundation. The foundation is headed by former IB head Ajit Doval, and others such as BJP’s thinktank Govindacharya, S Gurumurty, who is said to be close to the Sangh Parivar, and Subramaniam Swamy are a part of the organization. The moment a cable was leaked regarding Arun Jaitley and Hindu opportunism, S Gurumurty promptly wrote a letter to the Sangh head Mohan Bhagwat with the Wikileaks as the topic. Advani is not only displaying political acrobatics, but is also taking extra care of his health. After all, he is getting ready for a long political innings.

There is a ruckus on about the Shahid Balwa and Sharad Pawar connection. But Balwa was first associated with the Karunanidhi family. He was once the frontman of T R Baalu. He emerged at the treasurer for Dramuk, before which he had just two restaurants running in Mumbai. But since his connection with Karunanidhi, Balwa came into unprecedented wealth. He first came in contact with Vinod Goenka, who introduced him to Sharad Pawar.

A capable politician, it seems Nitish Kumar has realized governor Devanand Kunar’s intentions and popularity and that is why he has placed a new vidheyak in the Vidhan Sabha. Under the ruling, the governor will have to take approval from the state government for any vice-chancellor post nominations. The governor is being blamed for giving shelter to a known university’s vice chancellor. This same vice chancellor Dinesh Prasad Sinha tried to molest Bhojpuri folk singer Devi in an inebriated state. The governor is also being blamed for hitting a worker at Bihar Bhavan in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri area. No matter what he does, the news is bound to travel far.

On Friday evening, New Delhi hosted Jashn-e-bahar mushaira, where everyone from Sheheryar and Javed Akthar to well-known poets from all over the world were present. Several prominent figures were also present. Before the mushaira started, Justice Markendeya Katju of the Supreme Court came on the dias and spoke in his Allahbadi dialect and set the mood. From there he requested that the next Bharat Ratna, whenever it is given, should be given to Mirza Ghalib. Meira Kumar took the stage after him and said, “We have seen the judge give judgments several times but are seeing him make an appeal for the first time.” She then said, “I lend my voice to Justice Katju and feel that the next Bharat Ratna should surely be given to Mirza Ghalib.”

The people from Mumbai Cricket Association got fed up of making place in the Presidential Box on the final match day. First there were sofas set for the Indian and Sri Lankan dignitaries but the numbers kept increasing. Kapil Sibal, Gadkari, Subodhkant Sahay, Advani, Ajay Maken, Jyotiraditya Scindhia, Shahnawaz Hussain, the number increased to 200. There was place kept for Rahul Gandhi too, but he chose to sit with his friends in the common public stalls, knowing that his politics involved the common man, after all.

Since Kripashankar has taken over the Maharashtra Congress, not all’s been well with him. He may have got a clean chit with the Madhu Kauda case, but there is a case against him for disproportionate assets and the Maharashtra State Corruption Bureau has made all preparations to register a case against him.

A mountain of a molehill. Looks like Justice Tahiliani understood Hasan Ali very well – is he a mere reincarnation of Natwarlal? This main job was to get loans for companies by forging documents and bank accounts. Ali’s son holds an ordinary post at a company in Hyderabad. Looks like our investigative agencies have missed the entire point when it came to Ali’s interrogation.

The chief secretary of FICCI and a financial adviser to Mamata Banerjee, Amit Mitra, doesn’t seem to be taking the political heat too well. It may be remembered that he is contesting elections against the CPI-M finance minister Aseem Dasgupta. He couldn’t take the heat during the elections and promptly fell ill. As soon as his Marathi wife Meera got news of it, she took the next flight out of Delhi to Kolkata.

Regarding the party changing law in Karnataka, an important verdict will be passed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. People sense that the verdict may go against the Yeddyurappa government. While means the government may come into minority. After all, how long can one hope against hope?