All hopes of Delhi’s former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were dashed when the party told her to prepare to contest the Lok Sabha elections from New Delhi. On the other hand, the party has decided to field Ajay Maken from West Delhi. Sources reveal that Sheila has clarified saying that since her son Sandeep is also contesting the elections from Delhi, how sensible is it to have two members of the same family contest from the same place? Sources say that Sheila had also indirectly indicated to the party high command that the party should bring her into the Upper House, that is the Rajya Sabha. But the party has said that the idea of bringing her into the Rajya Sabha or making her the governor of a state will be discussed later.

The officers, that is the babu log, of the Kejriwal government was having a good time. They are relaxing away and believe that the chief minister has no time to take care of governance work. He may be busy counting out his party’s accomplishments to the media but the reality is that half of Kejriwal’s time is spent with ministers and the media people. He spends the rest of the time on his party work and preparing for the Lok Sabha elections. And thus runs the aam aadmi’s Delhi.

The Congress played a major role when it came to Lalu Prasad ageing to an alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan. At that time, Paswan had almost decided to side with JD (U) and was in constant touch with several JD (U) leaders. But his problem was that he didn’t want to leave the Congress either. In the nick of time, the Congress conducted a public opinion , and results were eye-opening for the Congress people. It showed that if the Congress decides to do it on its own in Bihar, the party will not get even one seat. If it sides with Nitish, it might get one seat, but if it contests the elections after an alliance with Lalu-Paswan, it might win four-five seats out of 10. Ram Vilas Paswan may also win half of the eight seats from the alliance and Lalu may win 12-15. This survey cleared the road for Lalu’s coalition in Bihar.

Rahul Gandhi’s interview of a prominent English news channel has been a flop. Priyanka Gandhi and the company managing Rahul’s image had a big role to play in arranging the interview. Sources reveal that during the entire interview, Priyanka was sitting next to Rahul, although away from the camera’s frame. It is believed that after the interview, Rahul even asked the anchor how he had spoken. So excited was Rahul after the interview that he had decided to give another interview to a Hindi news channel. It is believed that Rahul has also asked Arnab Goswami, who was taking the interview, if the group had a Hindi news channel? After Arnab gave him a negative answer, he asked him to recommend one. Until then Rahul and Priyanka had no idea that the interview will bring about such a storm in the political teacup. After the interview was telecast, Rahul received such a bashing on social media that the media agency has been given a show-cause notice by the party and has asked it, “If the entire move has been so negative for Rahul’s image, perhaps it will be better if the party took back the business from the agency?” The agency is shocked and doesn’t know what to do. It can only put words in Rahul’s mouth but…..

Manmohan Singh’s government at the Centre has started looking for the appointment of a new Lokpal with vigour. The Parliament session starts on February 5, and it is possible that the session will go on until 22. The Central government will try that in the given time, the meeting to decide the jury for the Lokpal should be over with. It is worth mentioning here that the prime minister, the Lok Sabha speaker, The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and chief justice of Supreme Court will be present at the meeting. The names that are ahead in the race for the Lokpal’s post include Supreme Court Chief Justice P.Sathasivam, former Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, former Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justice D K Jain. Because the current Chief Justice P.Sathasivam is a part of the panel that will choose the jury, he can either recommend his own name or decide to withdraw his nomination.

It seems that the Central government’s efforts to form a commission to investigate Snoopgate and framing Modi on the same will come to nought. The Congress high command seems to be pretty worried about it and is wondering why no retired judge is ready to head the commission. The government had finalised the name of Altamas Kabir, former Chief Justice of Supreme Court to head the investigation. Sources reveal that when Justice Kabir refused to head it, the Central government tried to get in touch with Justice H S Bedi and Justice Deepak Verma for the same. But both of them refused, too, and the Congress-led government’s hunt for a retired judge is on.

High voltage drama was seen in the BJP a few days ago. On instructions by the Sangh, three 75-plus BJP leaders were, once again, told that they should give up the idea of contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections, and should be happy with the Rajya Sabha and play the role of guardians. These three BJP leaders are Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar. The one who got most upset was Joshi and didn’t seem to be ready to give up the Varanasi seat at all. It is also eating him up inside that the entire drama is being played out on Modi’s instructions, who is eyeing the Varanasi seat.

The heat is on for the race for India’s new Vigilance Commissioner. The DOPT had shortlisted some names and the list had been handed over to the State Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Narayanasami. Narayansami was ready to hold a meeting with the prime minister about this, when his wife suddenly passed away and he had to leave for Puducherry in a rush. He just came to Delhi this Friday and the meeting can happen in a day or two and the name for the new Vigilance Commissioner may be decided upon. The officers who are in the race for the post include UP cadre’s IPS Ajay Chaddha from the 1977 batch, IPS Rajiv Kumar from the UP cadre from 1975 batch, Law Secretary P K Malhotra, IAS Anshu Vaishya from the Madhya Pradesh cadre of 1975 batch and IAS D K Sikri from Gujarat cadre of 1975 batch. It is worth mentioning here that Vigilance Commissioner’s name will be chosen by a selection panel that will also include the prime minister, the home minister, the CVC and the leader of the Opposition.

BJP’s page three politician Shaina NC did some aggressive lobbying to get into the Rajya Sabha on the BJP quota, so much so that the entire Bombay Club was chanting her name. Sources reveal that top industrialists Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Subrata Roy Sahara also advocated her name to the top BJP politicians. Shaina’s father Nana Chudasama has been Mumbai’s sheriff and had married a Muslim woman. This Muslim woman is Vahanmati’s maternal aunt. So while Shaina’s mother is a Muslim, her father is a Gujarati and she herself has married a Marwari man. But the Sangh and BJP’s mentality are coming in the way of Shaina’s political ambitions since the two organisations don’t want to give a Rajya Sabha seat from the party quota to a glamorous face.

Laughter and guffaws filled the AICC  meeting last week, when Rahul Gandhi, party vice president, during his speech, tried to use a Hindi idiom that was aimed at Opposition party BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, “I have become a fan of his marketing skills – he is such a big salesman that he can sell a comb to someone who is bald.” The minute Rahul said it, the entire hall reverberated with laughter but he didn’t stop just there. He took a dig at Aam Aadmi Party and said, “New people have entered the arena now. Their cleverness is to such a degree that they are out to give new hairstyles to those who are bald.” The hall was filled with laughter again. The only one who didn’t laugh was P Chidambaram because he couldn’t figure out the meaning of the Hindi idioms. Ahmed Patel, Congress president’s political secretary, was sitting next to him and he explained the meaning to PC in actions and using English. By the time he understood the meaning and laughed about it, the laughter in the hall at subsided.