BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has made clear his priorities to his party leaders –three prominent seats from UP, viz., Varanasi, Mathura and Ayodhya have become a matter of prestige for him now. That is why he kept the Varanasi seat for himself, there were several rounds of discussions about BJP old hand Lallu Singh from Ayodhya, who lost the last Assembly elections and about the candidacy from Mathura. Rajnath wanted the Mathura seat to go to his brother-in-law Arun Singh, but Modi spoke to Hema Malini about it; then Hema had shown interest in contesting from Ghaziabad or Gautam Buddha Nagar. But Modi got her around to choose Mathura. Modi’s logic was that Hema is a Brahmin and her husband is a Jat Sikh, which can divide the Jat votes that would have otherwise favoured only Ajit Singh. Mathura has a total of 4.5 lakh Jat votes and thus Dharmendra too had agreed for a roadshow in the temple town. Ajit Singh’s son Jayant, who is going to file his nomination papers on April 2, has increased his interaction and networking with villages that have a majority of Jats. There was a time when Jayant was thinking that he won’t contest against Hema, but he agreed after his father persuaded him. On the other hand, Ajit Singh also kept exploring options with Jaya Prada to see if she would be ready to contest against Hema from Mathura, instead of Bijnaur. Despite Jaya’s agreeing to the offer, he was unable to get her to Mathura and the biggest reason for this was that Mathura’s Jats were not agreeable to the idea of Jaya. Thus, the BJP has been trying with all its might to win from the three ancient cities of UP and only the Ayodhya matter looks a little dicey.

The BJP in UP is in a frenzy because of the way tickets are being handed out as one wishes. Ever since Lalji Tandon has lost his claim to Lucknow seat, he’s besides himself with rage. Even assurances of getting a Rajya Sabha tickets isn’t cutting any ice with him. Sources reveal that Lalji Tandon is so upset about Lucknow’s seat being taken away from him that he has secretly had a meeting with Mulayam Singh Yadav along with Suryaprakash Shahi. It is being said that it was after his meeting with Tandon that Mulayam Singh replaced their candidate from Lucknow and has given the ticket to Abhishek Mishra. If the BJP leaders such as Tandon are to be believed, the Brahmins in UP, particularly Lucknow, are upset with the BJP. The same thing was repeated by Mulayam’s minister Manoj Pandey at a press conference. Rajnath Singh’s task in Lucknow won’t be as easy for him since there is a threat of an internal conspiracy against him.

These days, Modi’s election campaign “Chai pe charcha” has boiled over things in the state of Chattisgarh. Chhaya Verma, who was Congress’ candidate from Raipur found the “Chai pe charcha” was not her cup of tea. Just before the elections, the Congress gave the ticket from Raipur to Satya Narayan Sharma instead of the party’s first choice Chhaya Verma. The tea campaign is said to be responsible for Sharma’s debacle. To create an environment for political campaigning, Chhaya Verma was holding a dharna outside Raipur’s BJP Parliamentarian and present candidate Ramesh Bains’ house. So Bains invited her for tea. Chhaya couldn’t turn down the offer and after a sip of tea, some Congress workers jokingly asked Bains if it was Modi tea. Ramesh Bains quipped back saying, “This is Ramesh Bains tea.” The repercussions of the comment reached far and wide in Raipur and the Congress had to cancel Chhaya Verma’s candidacy. 

One of the basic fundamentals for Aam Aadmi Party’s popularity was the party’s commitment to oppose dynastic politics. But the way AAP’s tickets have been handed out this time, it seems as if the very source of light of the house has burnt it down. For instance, Arvind Kejriwal’s close confidante and party spokesperson Sanjay Singh set aside all claims by other party workers and gave the Gautam Buddha Nagar ticket from the party to his own relative K P Singh. The AAP cadre is pretty upset with this. 

India’s biggest corporate house Reliance has started a new kind of PR activity recently. Sources reveal that this new PR company was not there for Mukesh Ambani’s image-building exercise, but the attempt is on to take revenge from AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal. Known thinkers, politicians and journalists have been contacted through internet tools such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, and their interactions with Reliance’s top executives are being facilitated. The media department’s job is to make viral jokes, satires and digs aimed at Arvind Kejriwal. For instance, a cartoon strip doing the rounds on the internet nowadays is the one where pictures of Laden, Sonia and Kejriwal are hung together on the wall, and the tagline under them is “Al-qaeda, Al-faayda, Al-waida”, respectively. 

The Congress may look benign in front of the Modi-wave all over the country on the backdrop of the General Elections, but the party has played its biggest hand until now. That is the way it has chosen its party candidates, how the party has kept into mind the caste and local equations and each candidate has been measured on the scales of face value and the commitment to the party. The main strategist behind the scenes has been Priyanka Gandhi; while Rahul Gandhi has been busy campaigning for the party, Priyanka was busy giving the final shape to the names of the candidates’ list. For the past one month, Priyanka’s routine means arriving at Rahul Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane residence at 10 am every day and can be seen there until 2.30-3:00 am in the morning. Rahul’s core team members, for instance, Kanishka Singh, Kushal Vidyarthi and Ram Krishna stay with her the entire time and Priyanka makes it a point to take the feedback from Ahmad Patel before finalising any list. On Ahmad Patel’s advice, the names of several candidates have been changed at the last moment.

Vinod Sharma, who was once considered to be the business partner of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, had some kind of argument with the chief minister’s wife Asha Hooda. In the days to come, the argument took the form of a difference and things came to such a head that Sharma decided to bid adieu to the Congress. Sharma’s News Channel Chief Deepak Chaurasia connected Sharma with the BJP got Sharma to meet BJP’s veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi and then party President Rajnath Singh. In a way, it was decided that Sharma will contest the elections from Karnal in Haryana from BJP. When the seat went to Kuldip Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) under an arrangement, Rajnath Singh himself spoke to Bishnoi and arranged for Sharma to contest the Karnal seat on HJC ticket. But when the matter featured the name of Sushma Swaraj as well, she took a tough stand against Sharma on the matter. The result was Sharma ji could neither join the BJP nor the HJC. Then he tried to test the waters with Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal. But things didn’t work out there and sources reveal that Sharma ji has now decided to form a new regional party  because coming September-October will also see Haryana Assemble elections taking place.

The Congress is turning to Dharma during its adverse times. When a new channel decided to hold its programme at Varanasi’s Assi Ghat and a Gujarati Muslim spokesperson Yasmin Khan challenged the Congress asking what were the issues they would place before the voters – Coalgate, 2G, Commonwealth or Robert Vadra, the Congress spokesperson Rajiv Shukla recited a Tulsidas verse in retaliation to the BJP and Modi. Rajiv Shukla also claimed that Tulsidas ji had written the verse in Assi Ghat in Varanasi itself. “Tulsi is sansaar mein, paanch ratan hain saar; sat, sangati or hari bhajan, daya, dharma, upkar.” (The crux of the matter in this world, O Tulsi, are five pearls of wisdom; that of being good, having good company, singing the Lord’s praises, being merciful, righteous and doing good to others. Shukla ji challenged the BJP that Modi had neither of the five qualities. 

The confidence of the BJP in this election is high and the party is not worried about small amounts of political donations. BJP’s party treasurer happened to meet the chairman of a private bank at Mumbai’s New Oberoi. The basic curtsies and small talk had barely finished Goyal sa’ab gently teased the chairman saying, “What is the matter sir, you can’t be seen anywhere – Modi Express is about to depart. Don’t blame us if you miss the ride. But there’s still time, join the Modi bandwagon.” The bank’s chairman didn’t quite understand what it was – a humble request or a political warning. 

It is being said that Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Dependra Hooda is unwell and is suffering from a slip disk problem. Thus he is on bed rest but not liking one bit of it during the election season. On the other hand, the winds are blowing against the Congress in Haryana. Considering the new political environment, Chief Minister Hooda is trying out a new trick. It is being said that Hooda got in touch with INLD Chief Om Prakash Chautala at the residence of one of his confidantes. He presented a formula to Chautala wherein if Chautala family will help Dependra in Rohtak, he too will assist Chautala’s grandson Dushyant Chautala in Hissar.