There’s a line from a poem that can be loosely translated as, “I am successful. But I also want to be successful at looking like I am successful.” For this successful businessman from Gujarat, sky is the limit. There was a time when he would be seen in the durbars of Sharad Pawar, Prafful Patel, Kamal Nath, and Jayanthi Natarajan. Times have changed, however. Now the big politicians are coming to him. At the pinnacle of success, this businessman now wants to try his hand in all sectors, and has recently made a foray into the defence sector. To encourage defence business, he recently shook hands with a blacklisted Italian company. This is the same company whose name appeared in the AgustaWestland scandal. After the association with the industrialist, however, Finnemecanica’s name has been hurriedly removed from the blacklist.

In the quest to try his hand in the defence sector, this same industrialist was recently spotted in Sweden with a young chief minister from a BJP-led state. The two allegedly met the top officials of the company that had manufactured the Bofors gun. Ever since the FDI limit in the defence sector has been increased, this Swedish company is eager to get a foothold in India. After returning from his Sweden trip, this businessman is on a trip to Korea. It is worth mentioning that sensing controversy, the Prime Minister removed this industrialist friend’s name from the list of people going to China with him. Rahul Gandhi is in an attack regarding this particular friend. It is believed that the industrialist met top officials from a prominent Korean bank on his trip. The entire exercise was to collect money for his mines project in Korea.

Officially, Rajnath Singh, the most prominent UP leader, may have the number two rank in the Modi government at the Centre, but everyone knows Arun Jaitley is the most powerful minister in Modi government. So as the budget for home ministry kept getting cut, Rajnath’s frowns kept becoming more pronounced. He took his complain to Modi because the budget cuts directly affected those projects in the ministry that were on his priority list – for instance, Naxalist movement, North-East and police reforms. These are also the programmes that the home ministry handles directly. For instance, Rajnath Singh was taking all sorts of measures for smart policing. But under the new budget, the resources for policy modernisation have been handed over directly to the states. It will also be the states’ responsibility to manage the funds; which means if the state government wants, it can divert that money to some other programme. Rajnath considers this as risking national security. For instance, a demand for additional Rs 190 crore was made for border forces, but it got merely Rs 50 crore. The coming days may see some friction among colleagues.

He has his eyes on the political scene at all times – just like the archer Arjun, whose only focus was on the bird’s eye. There is something about Rajeev Shukla that his popularity quotient remains intact, no matter which party comes to power in the Centre. A few days ago, Shukla ji was seen playing the host to Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in a special box during an IPL match between Delhi and Mumbai. Jaishankar’s presence was also significant for Shukla because the foreign secretary had just returned from the foreign tour to Germany, France and Canada with the Prime Minister. An industrialist was also present in the box, whom Shukla introduced to the foreign secretary. There was a time when Shukla was Shahrukh Khan’s brand ambassador. He has become close to Akshay Kumar ever since the Nizam in Delhi changed. Thus, during the same match, in the same box, Akshay Kumar was spotted on Shukla’s side. Catching every chance is something one should learn from Rajeev Shukla.

Once Nitin Gadkari’s closest confidantes, Ajay Sancheti probably thought there was no future with the former and that is why he thought it wiser to choose Devendra Fadnavis. It is worth remembering that Sancheti first grabbed headlines when he spent crores from his personal funds to renovate and refurbish Gadkari’s then official residence at 13, Teen Murti Marg, which he had got as the party president. Gadkari brought him into the Rajya Sabha and faced severe criticism from several quarters for it. This time when the time came to choose a commissioner for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), there were three names in the fray. One of the names was Gadkari’s preference. But instead of giving Gadkari’s choice preference, Devendra Fadnavis gave precedence to Ajay Sancheti’s candidate Ajoy Mehta and made him the new commissioner with the BMC. Expectedly, the relations between Gadkari and Sancheti are strained and are now limited to exchanging pleasantries.

A 50-day break abroad, Vipassana, a stay with maternal uncle Walter Vinci, political advice from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh…. There has to be some reason behind Rahul Gandhi’s new avatar. What he now says have a new context and a new-found gravitas. So when Rahul Gandhi says it’s Acchey Din for a particular industrialist from Gujarat, there is a wider meaning to it. Sources reveal that whenever the Prime Minister goes on a trip abroad, this industrialist already has a room booked in the hotel the Prime Minister stays in – the booking is done by the PMO. Be it Paris’ Hotel Plaza Atheneé, Berlin’s Hotel Adlon, New York’s New York Palace, or the hotels in Sydney or Tokyo, this industrialist has stayed in the same hotel at the Prime Minister. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also seen at all state dinners organised in honour of the Prime Minister. What happened at Paris’ Hotel Plaza Atheneé was unique; although the Prime Minister’s visit to France was one of the busiest, the Prime Minister spent no less than two-and-a-half hours with this industrialist. He had dinner with him, shared his thoughts with the industrialist. Sources also say that during the time the Prime Minister was with the industrialist for two-and-a-half hours and having dinner with him, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, and India’s ambassador in France were seen in the hotel’s lobby, waiting for their turn to meet him. A similar scenario occurred during the Prime Minister’s stay in New York. Dear readers, are these sounds in the political corridors that of Acchey Din? Is Arun Shourie’s recent irritation connected to these incidents?

The famous Mulayam Singh family, which is known for leaning towards the Muslims, has increased its belief in Hindu religious rituals. For the past few days, Mulayam and Akhilesh have opened their doors and hearts for Hindu priests and dharma gurus. There are some poojas or religious proceedings happening every other day. All this started in 2012, when Akhilesh became the chief minister – it was the Panchak time. To cleanse that period, a pooja by 47 priests was organised. After that, an industrialist friend of the Mulayam clan organised a big religious ceremony at his residence in Gomti Nagar. Sources reveal that both Akhilesh and Dimple were present for the last day ceremony, also called the poornaahuti. The pandits who were a part of the pooja got a dakshina of Rs 51,000 each on behalf of the industrialist, Akhilesh and his wife Dimple. The pandits had been asked to keep their mobile phones outside for the pooja. This time when the SP supremo Mulayam Singh suddenly fell ill, a Shravan Yatra was organised with great pomp and show. The venerators were given free trip from Lucknow to Rishikesh-Hardwar and good arrangements were made for their boarding and lodging. Five coaches were reserved especially for these pilgrims and were given a bag each full of eatables and other refreshments. The chief minister himself went to Lucknow railway station to see them off and big advertisements appeared in newspapers about the occasion. As the date for 2017 election approaches, Hindu pandits and dharma gurus are seeing their importance grow in the Mulayam-Akhilesh darbar.

A big reshuffle is in the offing after the current Parliament Budget session ends. The biggest noise will be created by the changes that will happen in the Modi Cabinet. Nine new governors are to be appointed around the same time and several prominent politicians from the saffron party are vying for the posts in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. The names in the race include that of Lalji Tandon from Uttar Pradesh, Najma Heptullah from Madhya Pradesh, Vijay Kumar Malhotra from Delhi, and C P Thakur from Bihar. Apparently, however, Thakur met with the Prime Minister a few days ago and expressed his unwillingness to take up the job. In any case, he still has a two-and-a-half year tenure in the Rajya Sabha. Dr Thakur is looking for a more significant role for himself in the coming Assembly elections in Bihar. To attract people from upper castes, party President Amit Shah himself is exploring the possibility of making Dr Thakur the party’s president in the state in order. The present state party President Mangal Pandey’s tenure ended on April 18 itself. In any case, the saffron cadre also believes that Pandey has been a mere rubber stamp to Sushil Modi, Bihar BJP’s tallest leader.

With the approaching Bihar Assembly elections, the inside strife and coterie talk are coming to the fore. Until now, Bihar Congress seemed to be divided into four groups – that of Ashok Choudhury, Sadanand Singh, Premchandra Mishra, and Ashok Ram. Recently, however, another one has emerged – that of Meira Kumar. Bihar’s former Chief Minister Satyendra Narayan Singh’s son and former Parliamentarian from Aurangabad, Nikhil Kumar, has openly started to say in public forums that Congress’ representation should be handed over to Meira Kumar. Sources say Lok Sabha’s former Speaker and Babu Jagjivan Ram’s daughter is ready to take up any such responsibility, provided the party high command puts her name forward. Currently, there are two members of Parliament from Bihar Congress – Asrarul Haque from Kishanganj, and Pappu Yadav’s wife Ranjeet Ranjan. But these two hardly ever take the trouble to take part in the party’s state-level meetings. At the same time, most Congress party leaders in Bihar don’t want to go with the Lalu-Nitish coalition. Instead, they are requesting Rahul Gandhi to let the Congress contest on all 243 seats on its own. The hidden agenda – these people will then be able to divide tickets and electoral funds from the Centre much better among themselves.

After having acquired a membership of 10.75 crore, Team Shah is brimming with confidence. Despite the alleged friction between Sangh and Shah, the Prime Minister himself is regularly praising Team Shah. Dinesh Sharma, who has been in-charge of the BJP membership campaign, former mayor of Lucknow and the party’s national vice president might be rewarded for his efforts. Sharma supports are implying that the party should project him as the chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh but after the bone-chilling defeat in Delhi, the party wants to consider this matter more seriously. For now, the party has made Sharma in-charge of the party in Gujarat; before this, he has proved his acumen in Haryana and Maharashtra. Known for his administration and organisational skills, Sharma’s working style is pretty unique. His wife is a professor in IIM, Ahmedabad and speaks fluent Gujarati. That makes Sharma’s Gujarat connection that much stronger.