Speculation about how Nitish is being played at the hands of Lalu might end soon. The truth is Lalu is playing his own game now. Let’s take the matter of law officers in Bihar. When Nitish was running the government with BJP as a coalition partner, half of the law officers were from the BJP quota. When the government of Lalu-Nitish and Congress was formed with amid much celebration, it was decided that the law officers should be assigned in the same ratio as parties have won seats. After agreeing to it on principle, RJD and Congress also sent its lists to the chief minister. But even after so many months of government formation in the state, Nitish is still dilly-dallying about the lists from his coalition members. As a result, of the most than 70 law officers in Bihar, all of them are Nitish sympathizers in one way or the other.

The red in the saffron party is now expressing itself. A few days ago, some unsatisfied BJP members have started a new party – BJP, that is Bharatiya Gujarat Party. These party workers have a special reason to be miffed. This is that the recent two-day National Working Committee meeting in Allahabad recently, four prominent leaders who shared the state – Modi, Shah, Jaitley, and Advani – have a Gujarat connection. Jaitley, because he has been chosen for Rajya Sabha from this state. Party workers felt that it looked like the meeting in Allahabad was not a national one, but like a Parliamentary group. According to the accepted traditions, two former party presidents have always been on the stage during the working committee meeting. At least Rajnath Singh, the former party president, should have been given some space on the stage. In the past, party vice-presidents were also called on the stage. In the changed scenario, everyone knows who the stage belongs to.

In a changed political scenario, a down and out Jagan Mohan Reddy has found a mentor in the form of Sharad Pawar. A fortnight ago, he arrived in Delhi on Pawar’s invitation with a lot of hope. He went to Pawar’s residence, where several politicians from different parties had been invited for a meal. Among them were BJD’s Jay Panda, NCP’s D P Tripathi, late P A Sangma’s son Conrad Sangma, SP’s Ramgopal Yadav, and INLD’s Dushyant Chautala. Jagan was under the impression that Pawar will help him with meeting some big BJP leaders, but none of this happened. Sensing this, a known journalist-editor called Jagan for dinner at home saying several big BJP leaders were coming, too. But all those BJP leaders who came were not of the top rung. On top of that, the Mr Editor requested for a Rajya Sabha seat for himself from Jagan, saying as an MP, he would take care of Jagan’s work in Delhi. Jagan can neither understand nor accept these political moves.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was instrumental in getting Zee’s Subhash Chandra a Rajya Sabha seat, has the threat of CBI investigations looming large over him. Sources say Hooda is terrified that he will also meet the same fate as INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala. As a result, he has already started the spadework to improve his relations with Modi government with the help of his close sources. But when the Congress high command got whiff of this, she called him over and gave him a dressing down. Sources say already miffed with his party high command, Hooda had been contemplating launching his own regional party. That is also because Sonia has refused to give Hooda’s son Deependra any significant position in the party. But due to a close aide of Sonia, this was averted. Now Hooda has decided that he will work for Jats while remaining in the party.

“Bahut sun tey thhey shor-e-dil ka, par ye to qatra-e-khoon nikla”. Speculation about a Cabinet reshuffle in Modi’s government has been doing the rounds for a long time. It is also being said this reshuffle is going to be a significant one. The sources, however, say it is going to be a regular one where empty seats will be filled up. There is talk that in light of the possible Assembly elections in Odisha, Petroleum Minister for State Dharmendra Pradhan might be made the state head and sent to his home state. Something similar might happen to Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar; to prepare him as an alternative to Shivraj, he might be given a prime responsibility in the party. From UP, those such as Yogi Adityanath might be included in the Cabinet, and considering the elections in Punjab, Navjot Singh Siddhu might be made the sports minister at the Centre. Vijay Sampla has already been made the BJP head in Punjab, and it seems his farewell from the Central ministry is more or less final. After becoming the chief minister of Assam, Sarvanand Sonowal has given his resignation from the Cabinet, and so has Danve Patil, who was made the Maharashtra BJP head. BJP’s National Working Committee’s meeting is due to take place on June 12-13, after which the Modi Cabinet might see a reshuffle. It is believed that the stature of Piyush Goyal and Manoj Sinha will be increased, and several non-performing ministers will be removed, and put to serving the organization. But this is all speculation – what will happen is what Narendra Modi wills.

In today’s political scenario, where political leaders are wary of giving their opinion about issues related to the public, Gandhi family’s younger daughter-in-law, and Central Minister for Women and Child Welfare Maneka Gandhi speaking up for mute animals is not something that goes unnoticed. Sources say forest and environment ministry is ready to take back its orders of culling animals in several states. According to sources, the prime minister who has returned from a tour of five countries, took notice of the incident and has given a stern dressing down to his minister Prakash Javdekar. According to the investigative report given to the prime minister, the Muslim hunters from Hyderabad, who have been given the contract to cull the nilgai (Asian antelope) by the Bihar government, have a tarnished past and they are somehow connected to poaching. Blamed for spoiling the crop of farmers, the nilgai was announced as being a vermin and more than 250 of them were culled in Bihar alone. This does not go with BJP’s image, since it is ready to capitalize on the beef politics in UP. At the same time, a professional service was paid to kill more than 200 wild boars. In Gujarat, the peacock, which is our national bird, was killed mercilessly, and there is permission in Himachal to kill monkeys. In West Bengal, it is all right to kill elephants. Do we need a bigger example of inhumanity being made a legal right?

Finishing touches are on for a big reshuffle in the Congress. Sources say a group of senior leaders is fixated on the demand that Priyanka Gandhi be made the party secretary and given the responsibility for UP elections. Like every year, Rahul is getting ready for his vacation abroad in a few days from now. The hitch – his birthday falls on June 17. So mother Sonia wants him to celebrate his birthday with the party workers and then go for his trip abroad so that the Congress can announce its new team. A group of party leaders are putting pressure and saying it was time Rahul became the party president. On the other hand, Sonia loyalists feel it is not the right time for Rahul to take over as the party president. The decision now rests with Sonia.

Ever since the ED has got hold of the emails between arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and Robert Vadra, Priyanka Gandhi is a worried woman. After several mentions of Vadra’s name, a worried Priyanka called senior journalists and editors to her residence. Sources say Priyanka requested these media people to not give this incident too much importance and to not drop Vadra’s name time and again. It is believed the journalists showed their helplessness and told her that they could not control news, since the management is somehow directly connected with this news. They added that there was heavy pressure on the management to feature this news. Priyanka finally understood the full picture.

It is said Naveen Jindal has played a significant role in making Zee’s supremo and Narendra Modi’s confidante Subhash Chandra’s road to Rajya Sabha a tough one. Sources say the prime minister wanted to choose Chandra for Rajya Sabha, but the party top man had a different opinion. Thus, it was decided that Chandra would be brought into the Rajya Sabha as the chosen candidate from his hometown Haryana. Sources say Chandra had also spoken to Bhupinder Singh Hooda about it. In the midst of all this, Naveen Jindal rushed to Sonia Gandhi and told her that if a whip was not issued against Congress MLAs in Haryana, there were chances of cross voting in favour of Chandra. At the same time, several Congress MLAs were not agreeing to support R K Anand, who had challenged Chandra with the support of INLD. Thus, Jindal had to placate them with several big promises.

After Amar Singh’s reentry into the SP, a miffed Azam Khan has gone abroad on vacation. Professor Ramgopal also doesn’t miss showing his displeasure to Netaji. He can’t openly glare at him since he doesn’t have any political standing. On the other hand, as soon as Amar Singh got a Rajya Sabha seat, he got busy with trying to make Netaji’s years-old dreams come true. Amar has already started his spadework to have Netaji as the face that will be agreeable to all as one that can be launched against Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He is in talks with Nitish, is courting Mamata and Jayalalithaa, is writing down the script for Ajit Singhs’ election coalition with SP, and is getting in touch with his old Leftist friends. What more could Mulayam had asked for?