Amit Shah and his team have made the Bihar Assembly elections a matter of prestige. Because of this, the saffron party may have an aggressive stance during the election face-off. Sources say the BJP has conducted a public opinion survey in the state on how many Yadavs were killed during Nitish’s five-year tenure; the number may be made public soon. This is to tell the state’s Yadav community – which makes for Bihar’s 15 per cent population – that Nitish is not their well-wisher. The BJP is forgetting, however, that the party was Nitish’s coalition member until a year ago. Like they say, the fruits of evil are divided equally.

Change is the only constant. With time, change views and perspectives. The prime minister’s changed stance conveyed this to the BJP members of Parliament and ministers as well. Now the classroom wore a new look and not only was Modi singing a new tune, his body language was different, too. The Prime Minister was being nice to his saffron party Parliamentarians when he said, “You are like my hands, and you all are my diamonds.” Until now, these meetings would have the PM talk in sarcasm and annoyance. For instance, “It’s not easy to talk to you people, you people don’t even understand, looks like you don’t want the party ticket next time.” All in all, Modi’s stance used to be aggressive. When this group of MPs came out after the address by the prime minister, a senior minister said to his Maharashtra counterpart, “We are his hands and diamonds after the Delhi loss; if we lose Bihar, Mr Prime Minister might want to hug us.” As they say, there is no permanence in politics.

Ever since Sitaram Yechury has taken over the CPI (M) from Prakash Karat, seeds of a new friendship seem to be germinating between the Congress and Left parties. There is also speculation that the two parties may write a new story of a friendly fight in Bihar and West Bengal. To celebrate her husband becoming the party high command, Yechury’s wife Seema Chishti organised a celebratory party for close friends at her residence in New Delhi. Among the 10-11 people in the party, there were Congress heavyweights such as Digvijay Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad. After Yechury became the party’s general secretary, the strife between West Bengal and Kerala within the CPI (M) has come to the fore. A clear example of this could be seen when during a closed-door party meeting, some party politicians from Kerala tried to push their weight around with CPI (M) leader Biman Bose and the Yechury camp could do nothing but sit and watch. Someone quipped “Bengal tiger has gone for a sleep”, and it was caught by others.

Gandhi family’s saffron party representative Varun Gandhi has emerged in a new philosophical avatar. The Modi-era party might not have defined a role for him, but this former general secretary of the BJP and a Member of Parliament from Sultanpur can be seen penning thought-provoking articles for several newspapers and magazines. He has written articles on railway reforms, smart city, health administration, education policy and the plight of farmers. His collection of poems titled Stillness is also ready to hit the stores on April 29. The book has been printed by Harper Collins and Varun has dedicated the book in the memory of his maternal grandmother Mrs Amteshwar Anand. In the poem titled “Hope” of the collection, Varun writes:
“Your voice makes me forget the past
Looking at my reflection
Sometimes I think the journey lies within
but all I really do is wait for the gifts of time”
Don’t the above lines reflect Varun’s current political situation?

The Indian Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has had to jump through several hoops to get the JJ Bill – which talks about decreasing the legal age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 – passed in the Cabinet. When the bill came to the Cabinet, two ministers, that is Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur, and Ashok Ganapathi Raju of the Telugu Desam Party, showed their opposition saying the juveniles may commit several crimes without knowing. Arun Jaitley deflected the question and his logical arguments in favour of the Bill meant no one could counter-argue. As a result, the Bill was passed in the Cabinet. When all ministers came out of the Cabinet meeting, Maneka approached Jaitley and told him with humility, “I might get the credit for this Bill, but you are the one who deserves the real credit for it.” Maneka’s behaviour and humility touched Jaitley deeply.

Keeping in mind the recent efforts undertaken by the Janata Parivar, a prominent public opinion survey agency conducted a survey in Bihar recently. The public opinion survey showed a picture of Lalu, Nitish, Left parties and Congress together against the BJP in the coming Assembly elections in Bihar. The survey is sure to have shaken the BJP’s confidence. According to the survey results, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti is due to get 18 out of 38 seats; Upendra Kushwaha 7 out of 17; Jitan Ram Manjhi 7 out of 22; and the BJP is set to get 57 seats out of 165. Which means that if this is how the election results will indeed play out, there is a possibility that the NDA might get 90-95 seats, while the Janata Parivar can expect 132-136 seats.

Looking for new political ground for himself, Pappu Yadav is looking everywhere for possibilities. Sources reveal that after his much talked about meeting with Narendra Modi, Yadav recently met BJP President Amit Shah, shared a meal with him and explored the possibilities of joining the BJP. It is believed that Shah made an offer to him that if Yadav succeeds in launching his own independent Yadav-Muslim candidates for the 60 seats in north Bihar, especially the Kosi embankment, it might benefit the BJP. The BJP is ready to return the favour to Yadav. It is believed that after this, Yadav met with Congress In-Charge and told him about how significant he was in Bihar politics. Sources reveal that Pappu asked for time from Lalu Yadav, but the latter spoke to him on the phone itself and wondered what was left in their relations anymore. Lalu is asking for 110 seats for his party from Janata Parivar, and there might be an understanding for 100 seats. Nitish is asking for 100 seats and a decision may be reached at 90. The remaining 53 seats might go to the Congress and Left parties.

The top echelon of the saffron politics is set for big changes, as sherpas of Modi-Shah combine are busy giving final touches to change the face of the government and the organisation. The announcement on a major expansion-reshuffle in the Modi government could be made any day after the end of the second half of the ongoing budget session. Lok sabha is in session till May 9 and Rajya Sabha is till May 13. Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes one year in office on coming May 26. Indications are there that a few may lose their jobs, while a few others are slated to be sent to party for organisational works. Possibly, this could be the reason, why BJP president Amit Shah has been delaying the announcement of the names of his new team. Initially it was expected to be announced on April 2 during National Executive meeting in Bangluru. But it was shifted for April 6. In the meantime, sources said, following a detailed discussion between Modi and Shah, it was decided that changes in both- government and organisation- should be done near to each other so that ministers, who would be dropped from the government could be accommodated in the organisation. As the leaders came to know about the idea of the power-duo, many of the ministers are now seen running here and there to save their respective chairs. Majority of them are seen lobbying with Sangh and a few others are desperately trying to please God-Goddesses in temples of their respective faith and belief.

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It is almost for certain that Nazma Apa will lose her Cabinet birth. This so because she will soon turn 75 years, the Modi government’s cut off age for being in the government. In all probability, she will be sent to Assam as Governor. Nazma Heptullah is a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh and she still has about one and half year to complete her tenure. Anticipating this to happen, another Muslim face of BJP Sahnawaz Hussain is eying to replace her in Rajya Sabha. Hussain is lobbying for this seat in the light of his utility in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. However, sensing the Sangh’s indication Amit Shah wants to replace Nazma with Om Mathur. Attempts are being made to convince Hussain to wait for a while, as the party wants to bring him to Rajya Sabha from Bihar

Notwithstanding his image of being a great event manager, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not in favour of organising any big event or celebration on the occasion of completion of one year in office, as he indicated to his close cotrie that people have not given him mandate for 12 month but for 60 months. This he has revealed on his return from his visit to European nations. He is learnt to have told then that time has not come to evaluate the performance of his government. Therefore, he has not yet given contract to any private media or marketing company. However, those, who are managing he social media of the government, have been alerted to ensure that the twitter handles of the Prime Minister and other ministers should properly propagate achievements of the government as a whole and in case of ministers their respective ministries and departments. Meanwhile, Modi has convened a meeting of party MPs on this Sunday at Balyogi Auditorium situated in Parliament, where they will be told and trained to take the good message of the achievements of the government in their respective constituencies. Modi and and his core team know that the image of the government is not good, as it is seen pro-corporate and anti-farmer. Interestingly, however, corporate world too is not so happy and occasionally they have been expressing their displeasure too. Therefore, Modi government wants to sing paeans with much fanfare.