The  Hon’ble President caught a mistake made by Arvind Kejriwal, the then chief minister of Delhi for 49 days. The mistake also came to light only because Pranab da has been the nation’s finance minister in the past. The president asked the home minister for Delhi’s budget. The same question was asked by the home ministry to Delhi’s Lt Governor, who asked the same question of the chief secretary. And when the chief secretary wanted to know the same from the finance secretary, his answer was that the Aam Aadmi government had not asked him to prepare one. The chief secretary then asked where is the 300 crore that had to be given to discom companies without supplementary demand go? The answer was, “It was announced but there was no provision for it in the budget.” What happened to the subsidy and non-payment? then the answer came: It’s nothing but a press note. It is not even a decision taken by the Cabinet. 

Once the news of this got around, shock waves went through the administration. The matter reached Finance Minister P Chidambaram. In a hurry, he established contact with the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and informed her that Arvind Kejriwal, who has been an IRS officer once, had gone into the “Andolan” mode without preparing a budget. This means if the budget is not passed, Delhi’s Government employees will not get their salaries until April 1. Thus, in a hurried activity, the budget was somehow passed on the last day of the Parliamentary session – February 21. And that happened only after an assurance by Sushma Swaraj that no kind of Constitutional crisis will be allowed to take place in Delhi. But now that the budget has been passed, it has neither the Rs 300 crore and neither any order for subsidies. Kejriwal ji ,running a government is quite different from being a street fighter. 

Last week, the income tax department conducted a raid on the premises of one of India’s big meat exporter Moin Qureshi. The raid revealed that Qureshi and late Ponty Chaddha’s farm houses are adjacent to each other and both of them were business partners, too. A taped conversation between a prominent CBI officer and Qureshi has also come to light and the conversation between both of them has revealed that a big investment has taken place in Paris and London through the Hawala racket. There are also indications that the financial transactions for the business took place in London. The details of the properties that have come out in the raid are of a higher value than his company’s turnover for the past 15 years! It is worth mentioning here that Qureshi and the CBI officer’s phones have been under surveillance for the past two years. A raid was conducted at the businessman’s Noida premises and there is news that some things have been found there, too. Now the government, especially the income tax department, is eyeing another major meat exporter, who has close relationships with several BJP leaders. Who’s next? 

Ever since Mamata Banerjee has got social worker Anna Hazare’s support, her confidence has touched the skies. Now her close aide Mukul Roy has also established contact with Shahi Imam Ahmed Bukhari. If everything goes according to plan. The Shahi Imam will campaign for Mamata in the entire country. Didi’s aim is to establish the Trinamool Congress as a national party so that her party can become a threat for the Left party in the country. For now, Didi wants her candidates to contest from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra. And for this, she has got star campaigners in the form of Anna and Shahi Imam. 

Ten Supreme Court judges are retiring this year, of which four have applied for the Lokpal’s post. These include Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, Chief Justice P.Sathasivam, Justice B S Chauhan and Justice C K Prasad. Two names are ahead in the race and are also a favourite with the Centre. These names are believed to be those of Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and Justice C K Prasad. 

Sources reveal that according to a confidential report by the IB, BJP-led NDA is slated to get 240 seats, the Congress 60-62, SP 9, BSP 12-13, and Nitish 3-4 seats. 

The take on General Elections 2014 is different. The political landscape is changing everyday and even the biggies of the game are not sure about their ground. For instance, Digvijay Singh’s claims about contesting the elections against BJP’s bigshots Sushma Swaraj from Vidisha carried no steam; no he seems unwilling to contest even from Sagar. Another prominent Congress leader Suresh Pachauri has refused to contest the elections and P C Joshi from Rajasthan is talking in the same language. Sachin Pilot wants to leave his Ajmer seat and try his luck from Joshi’s seat in Bhilwara. Minister of State for Sports Bhanwar Jitendra Singh wants his wife Ambika Singh to contest the elections from his seat in Alwar. Despite the Modi winds blowing throughout the country, several prominent leaders in the party are feeling out of sorts. Politicians such as Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Venkaiah Naidu don’t want to contest the elections. Modi Forum is miffed with Shatrughan Sinha’s tall claims and wants Ravi Shankar Prasad to contest from Sinha’s seat in Patna. Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer Singh is also not sure about contesting elections from Bulandshahr and wants the Rajya Sabha for himself. Shashi Tharoor is in mourning over his wife Sunanda’s  untimely death and he is not  interested in contesting the elections from Thiruvananthapuram. 

The Congress is trying its best to save the ship from sinking in the coming General Elections. To deal with all the challenges of these elections, the Congress has adopted a two-pronged approach. One, the party’s media strategy will be framed from a scratch. Two, the party is being extremely careful and particular about choosing candidates. A three-member team has been formed, which includes a senior minister, a senior spokesperson and a junior speaker. This team will train its state unit to face the media and will give it an introduction to Acts such as Right to Information, Right to Education, Food Security, and the Lokpal Bill. Apart from this, it will also include the UPA government’s welfare schemes in the agenda. In the beginning, the team will work in areas such as Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Patna, Bhopal, and so on. Apart from this, Rahul Gandhi will also exercise adequate caution about choosing candidates. For instance, Rahul Gandhi has strictly told the party’s Election Committee that the party will not give tickets to those politicians who have lost the Lok Sabha elections in the past two terms or have lost the elections by a margin of more than one lakh votes. An independent survey will also be conducted about the candidate’s image. The Congress may be losing the coming elections, but it has not lost hope

Harish Rawat, who has got the chief minister’s post after a wait of 12 long years, has led to several people feeling an old nagging pain again. Sources reveal that former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s camp is already getting ready to shake the foundations of Harish Rawat’s chair. Five Congress Assembly members of this camp are in constant touch with a prominent business house and the head of this business house is meeting prominent BJP leaders and giving the party an offer that if the BJP is ready to form a government, all five members are ready to resign and in return, the business house is ready to give any price asked by the BJP. Poor Rawat is between a rock and a hard place – to save his chair or run the government.

Elections in the Varanasi will be interesting this time. This will be the first time someone from the King of Varanasi clan will contest elections. Varanasi’s king’s grandson wanted a ticket from the Congress, but Rahul Gandhi took too much time thinking about it. Sensing the opportunity, the SP offered a ticket to the family. JNU Professor Anand Kumar will contest the elections from Aam Aadmi Party. In the present circumstances, BJP’s MP Murli Manohar Joshi might see his hopes being dashed against the wall, because it is said that the public in Varanasi is miffed with Joshi. The long-standing blame against him is that he is seen in the city very rarely and is mostly in Delhi. That is why Purvanchal politicians in the BJP had requested Modi to contest the elections from Varanasi. Sangh also planned a strategy under which all leaders such as Joshi would be sent to the Rajya Sabha but Joshi didn’t agree to it. Thus, getting Modi to contest from Varanasi seems to be an uphill task for the BJP at present.