When this impressive young minister at the Centre and efficient organizer got off at the airport in his home state, he happened to meet the state chief minister there. After exchanging formal pleasantries, they settled down to have tea together at the airport lounge. During the meeting, the Central minister said something unpleasant to the chief minister and the environment heated up just like the tea in front of them. Both went their separate ways without giving each other a second glance. When the minister returned to Delhi after a couple of days, a senior bureaucrat came to meet him from this home state, armed with a small packet. The packet contained a CD, which had some scenes of intimacy shared between the minister and a famous actress from Tollywood. The message from the chief minister was clear – today the CD has been sent to you, but tomorrow it could go viral on social media. Reading the unsaid message, the minister instantly called up the chief minister and apologized for his behaviour. The matter has been shelved for now, but it still hangs like the Damocles sword over the minister’s head.

Sudden winds that are blowing have upset the prime minister’s knack for man management and his close aide Venkaiah’s floor management. A few days ago when Amma’s close aide Thambidurai went back after meeting Narendra Modi, the hope meter was high that Modi government will get the support of AIDMK on several important bills. In return, all that Thambidurai wanted was that since the BJP doesn’t have any significant ground in Tamilnadu’s Assembly elections, the prime minister should not attack Amma directly, since she hasn’t been keeping well currently. Things went off well for a few days, but one day Central minister Prakash Javdekar suddenly went to Chennai, and he called Jayalalithaa the most corrupt politician, and the AIDMK government the most corrupt government. Next – a war cry was sounded, and the sheaths are off the swords. A few days ago when Venkaiah Naidu called up Amma’s darbar, hoping to get her support for the GST Bill, he was told in a curt tone, “We don’t trust your word. You say one thing one day, and something else the next day. So it is better we keep our politics separate, too.”

When the communication lines between prominent Jat leader Ajit Singh, who is also playing the decisive game of politics in his age, and Nitish Kumar snapped, a Jat industrialist took his worried and upset friend Ajit to BJP President Amit Shah. The meeting took place in a conducive environment, and lasted for one-and-a-half hours. Sources say that Shah, the master of political moves, tried to read Ajit’s mind, and the latter spelt it out for him soon. He wanted a ministry at the Centre and a Rajya Sabha post on the saffron ticket from UP. He also wanted 45 seats for his party in the UP Assembly elections in 2017. Amit Shah clearly told him that he was agreeable to all conditions, provided Ajit merges his party with the BJP. But the Jat leader didn’t want it, and offered Shah that if he got a Rajya Sabha seat, he might agree to just 25 seats, too. Ajit was ready to become a part of the NDA, however; in his opinion, if he merges his party with the BJP, no one will benefit from it – neither Ajit, nor the BJP. It was then decided that for the final and decisive meeting on this three days later, Ajit would meet Shah with his son Jayant Choudhary.

The meeting with Shah filled Ajit Singh with a spurt of energy. A big group of his party workers from Muzaffarnagar went to meet him the next day, and some of these also had feelings for the BJP. Sources say that during the conversation, Ajit Singh revealed a little too much to the workers, and said that it wasn’t he who went to the BJP, but it was the BJP’s top leadership that came to meet him. One worker asked, “Choudhary sahib, how many seats will the BJP give us in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections?” Choudhary sahib admonished the worker and told him not to see so far into the future, and that they will decide on things only after sensing which way the winds are blowing at that time. Sources say that Central minister for state Sanjiv Baliyan told this to Amit Shah, and Shah was extremely upset at this. He cancelled the meeting that was to take place with Ajit and Jayant, and sent a message to Ajit that the meeting will take place in May, when the results for the Assembly elections will be out.

A few days ago, when Nitish went to Lalu’s home for a meal, he tried to tell Lalu that giving both Rabri and Misa a Rajya Sabha seat together will not send a positive message to the party workers. So, it would be best if Rabri Devi is given a Rajya Sabha seat, and Misa starts preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from now itself, and the RJD give the other Rajya Sabha seat to a Muslim. Lalu then put forward what was in his heart; he wanted this seat to go to such a lawyer who can help him clear the legal mess he is in. Sources say the very next day, Ram Jethmalani took an evening flight to Patna, had dinner with Lalu, and assured him that he will try to turn the court cases in his favour in just six months, and God willing, he will succeed, too. The next day, Jethmalani’s flight landed at Mumbai, but his political ambitions are soaring in the skies.

Delhi’s former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is now ready for a new political avatar. If all goes according to plan for the Congress, and if Prashan Kishore’s advice is heeded to the T, Sheila Dikshit might be made the head of the campaign committee for the party’s campaign for the 2017 Assembly elections in UP. Kishore’s formula is that the Congress concentrates on keeping together Brahmin, Thakur and Muslims. If under this strategy, Sheila becomes the Brahmin face, a Kshatriya may be made the state’s party head, and a Muslim the head of the Vidhanmandal dal. Sources say Sheila’s son Sandeep Dikshit has played a significant role in preparing her for a new political innings. He feels the Congress barely has a chance after the sun has started shining on AAP in Delhi. As a result, he is looking for new political ground for his future political role in UP and might contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from a Brahmin-majority constituency. In the past, his mother, too, has been an MLA from Kannauj.

In a way, it was Sangh that pushed for Maurya’s name saying he was not a controversial figure, he has also been a Sangh pracharak, and that no one can accuse him of being biased towards anyone. The backward Maurya caste that he belongs to has 6-7 per cent votes in UP. But when the welcome programme for Maurya was organized in Lucknow, no national leader from Delhi participated in it. Neither Rajnath Singh attended the programme, neither did Kalraj Mishra. Neither was Varun Gandhi there, nor Yogi Adityanath. Sources say UP heavyweight Rajnath Singh showed his annoyance to Amit Shah by saying he found out about Maurya’s name from TV, and that the party high command did not even care to take his approval. Which means the coming days might be full of tough tests for Maurya.

Is Delhi getting beyond reach for the BJP? Sources say party President Amit Shah had his favourite agency conduct a public opinion survey in Delhi, and the results were shocking. BJP’s pet Vaishya voters are also turning their faces away from the BJP. The trader segment of Delhi feels the saffron party’s policies at the Centre are anti-business. In the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, 79 per cent of Delhi’s business community had voted for the BJP. If the elections took place today, 70 per cent of them might vote for AAP, because according to them, Kejriwal understands better the pains and challenges of the business community. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the BJP got 90 per cent Jat support, but today this percentage is miniscule. Maybe that is the reason that despite all efforts, Pravesh Verma could not become the BJP president in the state. Clearly, his own caste voters have stopped supporting the BJP.

Pavan Sharma’s name is more or less finalized as Delhi state’s BJP president. Pavan Sharma is an active Sangh member, is a north Indian, has been an organizational minister, and thus has a good network and rapport with the state’s party workers. In any case, the coming two to three years are not very important in Delhi’s context; the elections are still three years away. Thus, a maverick Delhi leader Vijay Goyal easily staked his claim. Sources say Goyal met the prime minister before this, and expressed his views about it. What Goyal wanted was that if he is given the reins of Delhi state, he should also be given a ministry at the Centre. It is said this was not agreeable to Modi at all. Thus, Goyal’s name was struck and Sharma got lucky.

Nearly a dozen states in India are reeling under drought, and there is a pitiful clamour for water in states such as Maharashtra, Telengana, and Gujarat. Sensing the problem, it seems the Sangh has been considering the thought of organizing a “Jal Vrishti Yagya” with the help of Vedic pundits in these states. Sources say that in the past, too, when there was a drought-like situation in the country, the then Sangh sarchanchalak K Sudarshan organized 11 such yagnas in the country, and it is said that the results of these were positive. Such a yagna has the participation of 37 Vedic pundits, and is completed while sitting in a big vessel full of water. A highly-placed source in the Sangh says that back then, one such yagna cost Rs 11 lakh. In today’s times, this might cost nearly Rs 15 lakh. At that time, Sudarshan ji had organized these yagnas in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The Sangh now plans to hold them in BJP-ruled states. The organization is in constant touch with its branch organizations to see to it that the yagyas are a grand occasion. The time period of these yagya is at least a week. If the “Jal Vrishti Yagya” indeed can do a miracle, India is ready with folded hands to welcome it in today’s troubled times.