BJP has no equal in castes handling. Till now saffron strategists have proved to be the uncrowned king of social engineering, but when this saffron caravan reaches western UP, it commits a big mistake there. To win the Khatauli by-election, Jayant Chowdhary had bet on his late grandfather Chowdhary Charan Singh’s ‘Majag’ (Muslim, Jat and Gujjar) formula and bagged this seat. Jats and Gujjar castes may have worked together in the favor of BJP in the recently concluded district panchayat elections in UP, but when it came to become the president of the district panchayat, in this saffron period, Jats won the battle. Nearly 80 Jats were made president in 90 percent of the districts and Jats were also given prominence in those districts which were Gujjar dominated areas. It is said that there is a lot of anger in the Gujjar community about this matter. On the other hand, BJP’s focus is on those 14 seats in UP which it lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has formed a team under the leadership of Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, which is engaged in grass-root investigation as to why the BJP had to face defeat here in the 2019 elections. This team is working especially hard on the seats of Bijnor, Saharanpur and Nagina. Out of this Bijnor’s seat was won by Maluk Nagar of BSP and it is being said about him that he is in constant touch with BJP. On the other hand, the BJP is still trying to woo Jayant Chaudhary, but Jayant knows that ‘how does the saffron party deal with the smaller parties’ as what better example can be given than the Lok Janshakti Party?

The trusted people of the ruling central government are involved in getting Gautam Adani out of his current crisis. Ever since the report of the American research firm ‘Hindenburg’ came out on January 24, the crisis of the Adani group has been increasing continuously. A very reliable source related to the government claims that ‘Gautam Adani has been advised to sell some of his big companies and pay the money to the government and creditors immediately. This process should start at least from March itself. ‘ The same source claims that in this episode, Adani can sell two of his cement companies ACC and Ambuja Cement to Kumar Mangalam Birla and reduce his liabilities with the amount received from this deal. Sources are sure that even Kumar Mangalam Birla will not face any financial problem in buying these two companies, because the reputation of these two companies is such that any bank will be happy to give loan in their name.

Prashant Kumar, former BJP MLA and son of KSDL Board Chairman Madal Virupakshappa, was caught by the Lokayukta while taking a bribe of Rs 40 lakh during election time in Karnataka. So the opposition parties of the state again started making noise that ‘this is a government which takes 40 per cent commission’. But the truth is that this whole incident is believed to be the culmination of a mutual tussle between Yeddyurappa and the Chief Minister of the state, Basavaraj Bommai. Even though initially Bommai was seen as Yeddyurappa’s man, however in the recent past, there were reports of a tussle between the two leaders. It is said that Bommai did not expand his cabinet only because he did not want to make Yeddyurappa’s son a minister. Madal is also a trusted person in the Yeddyurappa faction. But the BJP high command does not want to take the risk of angering Yeddyurappa, who is said to have influence over 100 of the state’s 224 assembly seats. Yeddyurappa also has a significant impact on more than 500 Lingayat Maths in the state. The state’s 17 per cent Lingayat votes prove to be decisive in elections here. When PM Modi reached Shivamogga in Karnataka last week, it was his 5th visit to Karnataka this year, where Modi also addressed a big rally. Yeddyurappa was also seen with the PM at the inauguration of the Shivamogga airport before the rally. Moreover Modi showered praises on the 80-year-old Yeddyurappa and wished him a healthy life, which shows that the BJP high command has firm faith that only Yeddyurappa can reverse their electoral streak in Karnataka.

A recent picture of a lady officer from a major city in UP is going viral on social media these days, in which she is seen on a flight in an expensive ‘Burberry’ shirt and jacket and in her hands is an expensive ‘Rolex Rose Gold’ watch. Apparently, the initial price of this watch is above 40 lakh rupees.

The political circles are speculating whether the checkmate game between Vasundhara Raje Scindia and the BJP Delhi top brass has come to an end? It was being alleged that a ‘pact’, of sorts, has been reached between Vasundhara Raje Scindia and the Satish Poonia camp on the lines of ‘Na Tum Haare, Na Hum Jeete’ and that the Rajasthan BJP has also heaved a sigh of relief after a long gap. This was being said since, Madam, who was absent from the BJP’s flag-poster till now, has now started registering her presence in BJP’s official programs as well. Sources reveal that BJP’s seat-by-seat survey work was going on in Rajasthan for some time, and the results of this survey informed the party top that ‘without taking Vasundhara along, it will not be easy to overcome the Gehlot factor in Rajasthan’.
Less than ten months are left for the assembly elections in Rajasthan. Till now, separate programs of Vasundhara and the state BJP were going on in the state. However, there was a grapevine in the ‘relevant political circles’ that the state unit will also be seen with Raje in the grand program organized at Salasar in Churu on the occasion of Vasundhara’s birthday. Although Raje’s birthday falls on March 8, and since this time Holi festival is on March 8, Vasundhara has shifted her birthday program by 4 days.
However, it now seems that all is still not well between Raje and Poonia camp since on March 4, the youth wing of state BJP – BJYM – has organized a program to gherao the state assembly and state president Satish Poonia himself will be present and spearhead the rally. Other organizations of the state BJP will also take part in the protest and Poonia, on Saturday, made strategy regarding the protest. Therefore, although on the surface it appeared that the concerned parties had made amends, but, a political observer has pointed, that, all is not what it may seem!

Recently, when Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were skiing in the snow in Gulmarg, Kashmir, they had also sent an invitation to National Conference leader Omar Abdullah to go skiing with them. Omar had readily agreed to this, but his father, Farooq Abdullah, rejected the idea outright, and is said to have told Omar in an almost reprimanding manner – ‘Do you have the slightest presumption that you can ski like this? What would the Kashmiri people of the state think? What political message would be conveyed by this? Umar could not resist his father’s words and refused to accompany Rahul. After this Rahul’s dinner was fixed with PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti. But when Rahul’s skiing photo became so viral on social media, Mehbooba also canceled the dinner on the pretext that she was going to attend the Jammu session of the party, so she could not attend the dinner. Interestingly, like always, Rahul seems to be taking some time to read the political signals.

A high-level meeting of BJP leaders was held in Delhi recently regarding Haryana. If sources are to be believed, in this meeting it has been decided by consensus that ‘BJP will fight the 2024 elections together with JJP. BJP’s own focus is on non-Jat voters. The party knows that Chautala’s JJP has the potential to make a big dent in the Jat vote bank and party strategists are firmly confident that the Jannayak Janta Party can garner at least 30 per cent of the Jat votes. BJP strategists know that if Dushyant succeeds in making a dent in the Jat vote bank in the coming elections, then the saffron party can cross the electoral battle by betting big on its non-Jat vote bank. Sources reveal that in this important meeting in Delhi, it has also been decided that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will not be replaced till 2024. Moreover, in the 24 elections, the BJP will cancel the tickets of its existing MPs in bulk, replacing them with new ones as it wants to bet on the faces.

Akhilesh’s close friends also now feel that SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav could not handle the Ramcharit Manas case with ‘maturity’. In this matter, showing haste, Akhilesh has unnecessarily decided to fight with the forward castes of the state. SP spokesperson Richa Singh and Roli Tiwari Mishra, who lodged a quick protest against Swami Prasad Maurya’s controversial remarks on Ramcharit Manas, were expelled from the party by Akhilesh after the controversy, saying that ‘both these leaders are involved in anti-party activities’. In fact, Akhilesh was in London when Maurya made the statement regarding Manas, and though both Richa and Roli kept trying to contact Akhilesh, but they could not get in touch with the SP supremo. Exhausted, Richa Singh wrote a long message to Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav and told her that ‘you are also the daughter of a Kshatriya, how are you tolerating all this?’ Dimple took Richa and Roli’s words a little too seriously and called Akhilesh directly on the London phone and said, ‘What is all this going on in the party?’ After talking to Dimple, Akhilesh immediately called Richa and Roli and hurried from there, but both these leaders remained adamant on their words and said – ‘If we are not listened to, we will protest.’ On hearing this, Akhilesh got angry and at the same time showed both of them the door out of the party.

Recently, new governors were appointed in a dozen states and union territories and sources reveal that the name of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh was also included in this list. He was also given many options. Apart from Maharashtra, he was given option of states like Rajasthan, Himachal and Haryana but it is said that Captain was not ready to leave Punjab and go anywhere else. Captain’s supporters are also disappointed about this matter, they wanted the Central Government to keep Captain active in some form or the other.

With the success of the ‘UP Investor Summit’, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has received a new message from Delhi asking him to ‘ensure the dates of civic elections in the state as soon as possible.’ It has been said that ‘his long-pending cabinet reshuffle may remain stuck until the civic elections in the state are over.’ In fact, Yogi has been engaged in a major reshuffle exercise in his cabinet for some time now, where many of his old ministers have to leave and many new faces have to get a place in the cabinet. In fact, the UP local body elections are stuck in a dilemma that the reservation formula has not been finalized yet. This reservation formula is to be decided for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, presidents of 200 municipal corporations and chairman of 546 city panchayats. It should be noted that the deadline for municipal elections has ended on January 5 itself. At present, Yogi has sent a tip to Delhi that ‘election procedures are being finalised’. It seems Yogi is also waiting for the right time for himself.