When Amit Shah travelled to Mumbai for the first time as the party president, he had tea at Vinod Tavde’s residence and had his lunch at BJP MP Poonam Mahajan’s house, the daughter of late Pramod Mahajan. It is believed that Maharashtra BJP President Devendra Phadnavis played a big role in organizing the lunch at Poonam Mahajan’s residence. Shah arrived at her place with his wife, son and daughter-in-law and enjoyed a pure vegetarian meal. Poonam took advantage of the occasion and had every prominent personality and corporators of her Mumbai North Central constituency photographed with Amit Shah. The party president praised Poonam to high heavens in the presence of all and it seems like she has found a mentor for herself in the party.

Mamata Didi is trying all that she can to get out of the Saradha scam and is ready to do anything for it. Sources reveal that Didi has been to Delhi four times in the past month, and attempts have been made to keep each trip a secret. Mamata, with the help of a trusted driver, meets a yoga guru who is close to the BJP. It is believed that the man has assured Didi that he will do all that he can to brush the Saradha matter under the carpet.

Ever since the lotus has bloomed at the Centre, there has been a tremendous hype about the party’s symbol among the BJP cadre. The party’s strategists have decided that since the lotus appears in black and white in the EVM machine, why not maintain the continuity of the logo, and have the entire party material have the logo in black and white? Two, the party members also feel that the lotus that is shown as the party’s logo has dim peripheral lines that are too thin and so they need to be made more pronounced. Sources reveal that the party may send in a note on the same to the Election Commission soon, on how to try and make the shape of the lotus more pronounced. That means, highlight the outlines of the lotus simbol. Clearly, Modi is making more than a few changes.

Rajnath Singh has a clean political record. But when there was a controversy regarding his son and it became public, the connection was traced to the PMO. The south Indian journalist who flashed this news first on his website is considered to be number two to PMO’s P K Mishra. This south Indian journalist put up the news related to Pankaj Singh and also deleted within three hours, but by then the news had gone viral. A news channel said to be close to the BJP also aired this news prominently. The PMO may have trashed the story later, but by then the Thakur politician’s clean image had gone for a toss.

Renovation and repainting job is on in full swing at the RSS office in Jhandewalan in New Delhi. It is believed that it might take at least a couple of years of the transformation of the Sangh’s office premises. As a result, the office has been temporarily shifted to a building on Deshbandhu Gupta Road. Sources say the building belongs to Anant Raj Group, who has given the building to Sangh Parivar for two years. The special part about the deal is that no rent is being asked of the Sangh for the occupation of the premises. What’s also interesting is Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has also been mighty nice to the same Anant Raj Group. According to sources, apart from two-three licenses, Hooda has given the group some 26 acres of land in Gurgaon. Sources even claim that a close relative of Hooda’s has a share in the company

Mamata Didi has high hopes from Central Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that he will give some attractive packages to West Bengal to take it out of the financial quagmire it is in. So a few days ago when Arun Jaitley went to Kolkata, Didi hurriedly invited Jaitley and his wife over. Didi knew that Jaitley is fond of his food and called up a few journalists who are close to him to ask about his culinary likes and dislikes. Mamata got all of Jaitley’s favourite foods prepared, and different kinds of kebabs were also on offer. Then Didi and Jaitley got talking in a closed room but the conversation soon turned heated and when Mamata is angry, her English becomes Bangla style. Jaitley kept defending himself in his clipped English, but when they couldn’t reach an understanding, an enraged Jaitley stormed out of the room.

A BJP leader from Bihar who is still a bachelor has been one of the loudest voices when it comes to speaking in favour of Modi. During the Lok Sabha elections, he even matched his step with Amit Shah and campaigned for him with enthusiasm. But he did not get the Lok Sabha ticket; he used to be in Rajnath Singh’s team but when Amit Shah took over as the party president and announced a new team, his name didn’t feature in it. When the leader wanted to know the reason from Amit Shah, the reason gave him quite a shock. The Bihar politician had been in the US for a week last month and a CD was prepared on him that features intimate relations with several women and it reached Amit Shah. But shouldn’t this be forgiven for bachelors, Shah ji? Otherwise the line for such CDs might be long one.

Things are looking up for BJP in Haryana Assembly elections. All public opinion surveys are pointing out to the fact that the BJP may come out tops in this time’s elections and the state may see a saffron government for the first time. So ever since these claims have gathered steam, the prices for BJP tickets have touched the skies. Sources even claim that several well-known builders are eyeing some tickets in Faridabad. Three of them are vying for seats in old Faridabad. They want these seats for themselves at any cost, and a builder is ready to pay Rs 50 crore for it.

Kolkata will see municipality elections either at the end of this year or early next year, that is, in January 2015. Sensing the winds of change, Mamata didi wants to come across in a new political avatar. Didi ensures stays in touch with the rural populace, and especially Muslim and OBC voters. The panchayat elections in West Bengal already bear testimony to that. So now the challenge before didi and Trinamool is to attract the voters in towns and cities of Bengal, and that too at a time when the ‘bhadro manush’ (the genteel class) is leaning towards the BJP in a significant way. So didi suddenly played the Singapore card and returned from the country with her entourage on Saturday. She is claiming that 1200 Singapore companies are ready to invest in West Bengal and 13 MoUs have also been signed. But the moot question is that after the big controversy of acquiring land in Singur, have the necessary changes been made to the land acquisition laws. Because if that is not the case, which company would like to invest in the state after seeing what Tata had to go through. To publicise didi’s Singapore trip, a PR company was brought on board and money was spent without hesitation. Sources reveal that advertisements worth Rs one crore were given to Singapore’s national daily, Strait Times. When former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had gone to Singapore, his booking was made for a single room in a hotel. For didi, five suites were booked at Singapore’s five-star hotel Shangri-La. When Rajasthan chief minister had gone there in the past, only 10 people were there in the entourage. Recently when Telengana’s chief minister went there, there were only 10 people in his team, too, and nine people in the Andhra Pradesh team. With didi, it was 104 people who went, of which 52 were business delegates, 40 media people and 12 officials. Didi is clearly aiming for the higher ground.

Sources reveal that the Changi Airport Company took it upon itself to take care of and host Mamata Banerjee’s big delegation. That is because during the Communist rule in West Bengal, the Changi Airport Authority had got the tender to develop a big airport in Andal, Durgapur near Bardhaman, all with efforts from then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. As leader of the Opposition, Mamata Banerjee had then made it her duty to oppose the airport. Changi’s associate company in West Bengal belongs to Utsav Parekh, who had been a share broker in the past. His son is married to Prafful Patel’s daughter and when the deal between Parekh and Changi was finalized, Patel was the civil aviation minister with the UPA-2. It is believed this is the natural reason for Patel’s interest in the deal. Mamata has had good relations with Sharad Pawar and Prafful Patel. So, the two may have a role to play in having her go on the trip. On the other hand, the BJP is looking at Mamata’s Singapore trip in a different way. The saffron party feels this may be a way to route the Rs 2,000 crore (Saradha Scam money) outside India. BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh had already given his statements about this. All in all, Bengal politics may see a lot of upheaval because of Mamata’s Singapore trip.