Ever since the BJP and Modi have hoisted the winning flag after the Lok Sabha elections, one prominent Sangh leader Dattatreya Hosabale is busy trying to make the Sangh philosophy popular in European countries. For this, he is getting the full support of Ram Vaidya who stays in London. It is worth remembering that Ram Vaidya establishes Sangh’s branches staying in London. He is the son of a prominent Sangh leader M G Vaid and Manmohan Vaidya’s brother. Hosabale and Vaidya reached Paris on an invitation to speak in the city’s Louvre Museum and were taking part in a programme about India-France’s cultural exchange. After that they went to The Ramakrishna Mission’s ashram in Paris and unveiled Swami Vivekananda’s statue there. Then they went to Brahma Kumari’s ashram there. Anshuman Mishra, an NRI Businessman living in London was also seen with the two Sangh leaders. Sangh is set to establish its branches in at least six European countries – France, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Italy and Finland.

Haryana’s Congress state president Ashok Tanwar is pretty upset with his own party’s high command. He now earnestly feels that Hooda & Co. had some role to play in his losing the Sirsa constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. Tanwar had opposed giving tickets to four Congress leaders because he suspected them to indulge in anti-Congress activities. When a meeting about ticket distribution took place at Chacko’s residence, an argument erupted between Hooda and Tanwar and Sharda Rathore from Ballabhgarh Assembly seat also stood up against Tanwar. The seven Congress tainted leaders who Tanwar was saying shouldn’t be given tickets were given just that by Hooda. Tanwar took his complaint to Congress Supremo Sonia Gandhi but she too refused to entertain his issue; that is because Hooda has done innumerable favours to the Gandhi family. Maybe that is the reason Tanwar is contemplating quitting the party.

The Khap Panchayats have a lot of say in Haryana and even political parties have had to give in to Khap Panchayats. Seeing the way the existence of Khaps is being questioned for the past few years, several people belonging to the Panchayats have made a shift into active politics. Those such as Baljeet Malik from Gathwala Khap, Omprakash Dhankhad from Dhankhad Khap, Omprakash Maan from Jaat Mahasabha have turned into saffron politicians and have joined the BJP. Some women from the women’s wing of Khaps, such as Santosh Dahiya, who belongs to the Sarva Khap Panchayat, is going to contest the elections on INLD ticket. Sudesh Choudhury of Satrol Khap has joined the BJP. Several other Khap Panchayats have directly made an announcement that the political party that will support the issues that have been raised by the Khaps will get their votes. The Khap leaders have gotten to like the taste of politics at a time when it is finding it difficult to keep its identity intact.

While on the one hand the prime minister is busy preparing for his trip to the US, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is working on trying to increase its public presence in Europe. A prominent Sangh leader Dattatreya Hosabole is in London at present, where Sangh’s associate bodies are being brought together. During his stay in London, Hosbole met with writer and former head of conservative party Jeffrey Archer. Apart from this, he had a long meeting with a Member of Parliament of the Conservative Party Bob Blackwell. It is worth mentioning here that Blackwell has been taking an active part in the Sangh programmes in the past, too. From here, Hosbole will be going to Paris through the Skytrain. He then plans to go to the Netherlands and Italy; he is going to address people of Surinami origin in the Netherlands. It is believed that he might take a tour to the Vatican to meet the Pope. In the past, Manmohan Vaid has also established Sangh’s branches in Italy and France. Based on the Vatican model, the Sangh also wants to propagate about itself in Western countries; the Sangh has been active in countries such as Switzerland. It is worth mentioning that when Swami Vivekananda went to Switzerland in 1896, a large crowd was there to listen to his speech. Dattareya had written an article during the Football World Cup “Vasudev Kutamabakam: And football”, which somehow reached the Pope, who is also a big football fanatic. So he called up the Indian ambassador in the Vatican and expressed his interest in meeting Hosbole. Because the Indian ambassador Lokesh and Hosbole are both from Karnataka, they have known each other for some time. It is believed that during his meeting with the Pope, Hosbole may raise the issue of conversions that have been happening on a large scale in India. In any case, the tradition of Sangh sending its pracharaks to foreign lands is an old one. Before him, Soumitra Gokhale, Ram Vaid and Ram Madhav have been carrying it out for a long time.

In his five-day trip to the US, Narendra Modi may act more like a company’s CEO rather than a head of state. During his 5 five-day trip between September 26-30, Modi will be meeting the chiefs of five Transnational Corporations with combined worth of more than half a $ trillion. On September 29, American President Barack Obama will organize a dinner for him at the White House in his honour, where bilateral ties will be discussed. Nripendre Misra principal secretary to PM , took a meeting of 15 senior secretaries on August 29 to review the Bilateral Agenda, while National Security Advisor Ajit Doval reviewd the Defence and Security ties on September 5. Modi will speak at the UN General Assembly on the 26th, will address the Indian community at Madison Square Gardens on September 28, for which Modi’s close confidantes Bharatlal and party secretary Ram Madhav are working hard. On September 29, Modi will meet Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as the governor of North Carolina, Nikki Randhawa Haley. Apart from these, he will also meet Boeing Corporation ’s Chairman James McNerney, GE’s Chairman Jeffrey Immelt , IBM’s Virginia Rommety, Blackrock’s Chairman Laurence Fink and Goldman Sachs’ Chairman Lloyd Fink. He will also meet the heads of Master Card, Pepsi, Abbot Pharma, and on September 30, American Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry will organize a luncheon for the visiting Prime Minister.

The Indian community is fairly excited about Modi’s trip to the US, the country has more than 60,000 doctors. The committee of doctors that is being formed in the country to associate with Modi includes AAPI’s President Dr Jahangirdar, Dr Bharat Birai and New York’s Albert Einstein College’s young Dr Rishabh Mishra. This committee set a goal of $1.5 million worth donations from the doctors but a few days later, they had donations of $1.6 million, so the campaign was closed. Initially, a dinner for Modi and 783 people of Indian origin had been organized at New York’s Taj Pierre Hotel, but when the number exceeded, the other dinner was shifted to New York’s Palace Hotel. It is worth mentioning that Modi will be staying at the same hotel with his entourage during his US trip. For Modi’s address with the Indian community at New York’s Madison Square Times, the New York Metro is running special trains from New Jersey and Connecticut. All in all, the entire Indian community is working towards making Modi’s US trip a big one.

It is not really necessary to name this prominent SP leader – you will realize who he is on your own. He is a close relative of Mulayam, is a prominent minister in Akhilesh’s government and is known for shooting of the cuff. Sources reveal that Mr Minister has formed a company Bihari Construction in the name of his loyal driver Bihari Yadav who is also close to him. Officially, Bihari Yadav owns the company and it is registered in his name, but the surprising bit is that this company is getting all assignments of road construction in UP. Later, the company divides the task between smaller workmen, and no executive engineer in UP has the courage to stop any bill for Bihari Constructions, or questions it authenticity. Hand in glove, shall we say?

This husband-wife duo, who continuously put Narendra Modi in the dock regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots, tried to start a new stream of journalism and their leanings to a specific political party was no secret. Neither did the due get rid of the Congress since their talk show and TV anchoring days. So when the man who is India’s biggest industrialist and close to Modi acquired control of the Media group, the duo that couldn’t stop talking about the Congress were given a farewell. After having faced unemployment for some time, the husband has got a position in English news channel. Where the wife is concerned, she has got the position of editor-in-large with a Delhi’s prominent English daily. Sources reveal that one day a phone call from the PMO was received by the owner of the newspaper who was informed that the “boss” is not happy with the way the group has eagerly given a job to the woman journalist. On the other hand, when another lady owner of a prominent newspaper group reached the PMO to meet a top official, she was told, “You used to appoint Editor in your newspapers on the advice of 10, Janpath, It would be better if you lose that habit.” And when a prominent columnist asked for time with the PM, he was asked to meet the PMO’s state minister Jitendra Singh and he was told, “You have written almost six dozen columns against Modi, if you are so against the person, why do you seek his time?” Clearly, identifying his friends and foes and knowing how to behave with each is something Modi knows well.

Why did the BJP take a beating during the UP bi- elections? Did Modi and Amit Shah’s over confidence cross all limitations? Or did the party’s other small and big politicians and party workers have washed their hands off the duo’s self-praise? Rajnath Singh and Varun Gandhi, who have a significant influence in UP, didn’t budge in the by-elections and sat assured. So there was no one to ask voters with BJP affiliation to come out and vote. Indulging in self-praise and drunk on one’s own importance, the BJP leaders didn’t realize that it doesn’t take time for public opinion to change. This is the reason there might be some upheavals in the party in the state in the coming days. The present party President Lakshmikant Vajpayi might have to vacate this post, Yogi Adityanath might be ignored, and some firebrand politician might become the state’s party president. Those such as Varun Gandhi might be placated, and the party’s organization in the state might be shuffled around.

The road is more or less clear for a BJP leader to become the chief minister of Maharashtra. Prominent leaders of the BJP and Shiv Sena got together and have decided that both parties will contest from equal number of seats and the party that has more members winning the Assembly election seats will assign a chief minister from the party. After 1999, no matter which elections, Lok Sabha or Assembly, the BJP has won more seats than the Shiv Sena on an average. This means BJP’s strike rate has been much better than Shiv Sena. Thus, if the trend continues in these elections, too, the BJP may end up getting more seats than the Sena, Nitin Gadkari may stake the claim to the chief minister’s post in the state. At present, he is one of the senior-most leaders of the BJP in the state. However, one person who may spoil Gadkari’s plans is Prakash Javadekar, who has been eying the state chief minister’s post for a long time now. Internally, he also has full support from Modi and Jaitley. For now then, Gadkari’s road in Maharashtra doesn’t seem like cakewalk.