When it comes to political posing and electoral heaving, the demand for performers who understand the finer points of this art increases. Different political parties are trying to outdo each other with the help of street plays for the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar. Obviously, at such a time, street play groups and artists are in for good times. The going rate for 10 days nowadays is Rs 15,000 per artist, and this includes those poor musicians who go from village to village and find it hard to make ends meet. When it comes to elections, the script is already written, but there is high demand for writers who can come up with witty and striking dialogues. The politicians know that the moment a dialogue becomes hit the media people will lap it up. A prominent theatre company has made 70 groups of five artists each, and none of the groups has time for a breather. Every group is performing five to six shows a day. Team Shah, which is a pro at election planning, has already booked famous theatre organization IPTA for the NDA. It is another matter that with their revolutionary ideas that nurture flamethrowers, the philosophy of IPTA is more along the lines of Left parties. But when it comes to elections, everyone wants to make the most of it.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is caught in a bind after his interview about beef, which he gave to an English newspaper. The Sangh leadership may well be patting its brave soldier on the back secretly, but the BJP has distanced itself from his statement. Now Mr Khattar feels one of his own ministers has tried to frame him. A few days ago, some prominent builders met with the chief minister and had complained about a minister saying, “Your minister had taken a lot of money from us during the Assembly elections, but none of our demands have been met. Because the money had been taken in the name of party fund, you must get our work done.” Sources say Khattar was extremely angry after he heard the builders and he said, “I am a CM, not a middleman; I don’t work for money. And if this minister of ours didn’t have the protection of a Central minister, I would have made him go long ago.” When this particular minister found out what had transpired, he went to the CM with his complaint, and said, “You should not have said such things about me.” To this, Khattar retorted and said, “You are after my chair all the time.” Sources say Khattar sahib is now planning to go to the party high command to complain about this minister.

Rahul Gandhi is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts and is trying really hard to bring about changes in his working style as well. One can notice his change of heart when it comes to the party satraps. Last month when Congress’ heavyweight leader in Punjab Captain Amrinder Singh met Rahul at his residence in New Delhi, Rahul’s behavior with the former was a tad dry. Captain wanted he should be projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the coming Assembly elections in the state, while Rahul wanted the Assembly members to choose their leader in case the party comes to power. An upset Captain went back to Punjab but when his closeness with the BJP increased, Rahul sprung to action and he started to send his messengers to have Captain come around. It is believed that Ambika Soni had been given the task to talk to Captain. Sources say that Soni has assured Captain that a middle path will be chosen by the party, and that he should not take an extreme step in a hurry. Sources also reveal that some of Rahul’s close confidantes are also in talks with Captain’s close aide Sunil Jakhar. If all goes well, a decisive meeting in the form of damage control may take place between Captain and Rahul right after Bihar elections.

Two faces are shining brightest in every lane and by-lane of Bihar from the NDA’s side. Incidentally, both these faces have a Gujarat connection – Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Big cutouts and hoardings of these two also line the roads, railways stations and bus stands of the capital city of Patna. While the Bihar BJP might be able to spot a couple of pictures of its leaders such as Nand Kishore Yadav, Sushil Modi, and Mangal Pandey, those of NDA heavyweights such as Ram Vilas Paswan, Upendra Kushwaha, and Jitan Manjhi can’t be seen anywhere. The BJP has already taken control of all the prime locations; NDA workers are trying hard to put their own hoardings instead of one of Modi and Shah. They have also had a skirmish with saffron party workers about the same.

Dynamic chief minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee, who advocates the slogan of “Ma, maati, manush” seems to be caught in the name quagmire. Mamata is in a hurry to change names, especially those of Kolkata’s roads, metro stations, flyovers and bridges. Thus, on the first navaratra, the people of Kolkata were surprised to see a full-page ad in all newspapers changing the name of the city’s longest flyover from “Parama” to just “Ma”. Clearly, Kolkata is going strong on the trend of daak (informal name you are addressed by) name and bhaalo (official) name.

Bihar elections are boiling over with new political mixes every day. Sparring with words is commonplace, and everything is on the brink, the Lakshman Rekha, of politics. Considering this, BJP’s wise man Amit Shah has divided the party’s strategy into several layers. After all, Modi’s name, face and political credentials are on stake. Amit Shah has also decided that money will not be an issue in these elections. Thus, not only are the party’s candidates being taken care of, those from the NDA coalition are not being ignored either. Central minister Arun Jaitley’s close confidante Piyush Goyal can be seen taking care of the monetary part as well as media management. About a dozen ministers at the Centre are taking care of 10-15 Assembly seats, and are reporting directly to Shah. A crucial responsibility has been given to Central Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, who is also considered to be close to Modi. His one-point agenda has been to tighten the reins of unhappy party members, no matter what it takes. He is meeting with the party dissidents one by one, and is doing all he can to have them come around. A reliable source associated with the BJP says Radha Mohan had been given the same responsibility during the Haryana elections as well, and he had carried it out really well. In Bihar, it is all the more personal, since Radha Mohan knows several of these dissidents on a personal level; managing them, thus, is all the more difficult.

Sartaj, the son of Akhlaq (the man who met a dreadful end in Dadri) works with the Indian Air Force. Thus, the moment the Dadri incident caught attention and exploded on a national scale, Air Force Chief Aroop Raha organized a press conference and said Sartaj will be given all the security and is welcome to stay at any of the base camps of the Air Force. When the chief’s statement reached the media, several Hindu groups associated with the BJP and Sangh were extremely upset. A complaint was made at the highest level, and right after that, the Central government got into damage control mode. It is being said that due to pressure from the Sangh, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar himself had to come forward, make it clear that Sartaj was only being given government accommodation on an out of term basis. For a second, even the Air Force was stunned at the defense minister’s quick call to action.

Central Home Minister Rajnath Singh may well be considered one of the favourites in the Sangh, but as home minister, his behavior is certainly setting new benchmarks. While on the one hand the entire BJP’s UP arm was trying to milk political mileage from the Dadri incident, and everyone – from Sadhvi to Yogi, Sangeet Som and even Minister of State Sanjeev Baliyan was fanning the already spreading fire — Rajnath Singh did things differently. He passed a strict advisory to the UP government, saying the state government should investigate about those responsible for it without any discrimination and catch hold of them, adding that the Central government would help in all ways possible. At the same time, political meanings from Rajnath’s advisory are being discussed. Sources say he knew that be it Sangeet Som or Sanjeev Baliyan, they were both very dear to the Party President, Amit Shah.

When Narendra Modi was advancing to his helicopter after a rally in Bihar, a swayamsevak, an old hand with the Sangh as well as a district commissioner from the BJP, handed over a piece of paper to Modi. Modi took the paper, folded it, and kept it in his pocket. The minute the helicopter lifted off the ground, Modi started to read the note, which said something like this: Dear sir, despite being a prime minister, you are so concerned about Bihar’s Assembly elections, and doing all you can to ensure the BJP’s win in the state. At the same time, there is no paucity of top BJP leaders in the state, who are only trying to grab as much money as they can. So much so that several of them are auctioning party tickets, and the rate of BJP’s tickets have gone up to Rs two-three crore. Committed party member have been ignored, and the party has got several businessmen as candidates from different parts of the state.” It seems this has really upset the prime minister. When he arrived on the stage for the next rally, his face was flushed with anger. When Sushil Modi bent down to welcome him, the prime minister’s face showed clear signs of indifference. Although he did pat the local BJP’s back with enthusiasm as a greeting.

Lal Krishna Advani, an important member of the BJP’s Margadarshak Dal, is like Bhishma Pitamah on a bed of arrows nowadays, and has the Pandavas on one side and the Kauravas on the other. Advani’s birthday falls on November 8, and the Bihar elections results will come on the same day. Now the question is what will be the real birthday gift for this veteran leader of the BJP – a win of the BJP’s coalition, or that of his old and dear disciple Nitish Kumar and his associates. After all, even those in the BJP know Nitish is the real disciple of Advani in every sense.