Once considered to be a political party back by deep pockets, the coffers of the Bhartiya Janta Party have run dry. Not just that, the party owes a debt of nearly Rs 26 crore to various people. The repercussions were seen at the party’s national conference and meeting that started on March 1. Thousands of party representatives from all over the country had come to take part, and they were accommodated at cheap hotels in Paharganj and Karol Bagh. In earlier years, there used to be a taxi service available, this time, about 150 party workers were told to take these workers party representatives to Talkatora Stadium. The main question now is what happened that the minute Gadkari stepped down, Rajnath was to face no money in the company’s accounts? Sources reveal that party heavyweights such as Advani, Rajnath Singh, Gadkari and so on travel around on chartered flights. At times, these party leaders use helicopters for party meetings, which cost a substantial amount. Until now, the biggest contribution to the central party fund used to be from BJP governments in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Quite a bit used to come in from Jharkhand. In the changed scenario, BJP no longer rules in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, Where governments in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh are concerned, the chief minister there consider themselves to be above the party high command itself. Narendra Modi contributes the least to the party. The chief minister of Goa Manohar Panicker keeps mentioning how Goa is a small state and rues the scarcity of resources in the region, When Gadkari was the party president, he would manage to get funds from various resources. Ever since Rajnath Singh has taken over the party reins, not only has there been a scarcity of funds, the enthusiasm of party workers is also low.

The way the Sangh Parivar, its associate parties and BJP frowned when the home minister talked about saffron terrorism at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir, and the BJP had demanded a boycott of Sushil Shinde, Congress managers managed to get off the hook pretty easily. All new channels and newspapers carried pictures of Sushma and Shinde smiling together. It was claimed that Shinde had apologised for his comments on saffron terrorism and showing magnanimity, Sushma and the BJP had forgiven him. The Sangh is extremely upset with this. On the other hand, sources close to the BJP have said that Shinde and prepared the draft for the written apology in the presence of prominent BJP leaders and had been approved by Advani, Jaitley, Sushma, Rajnath and Jaswant, and only then had Shinde signed it. The Sangh is not okay with the attitude of some of the prominent party members on the Shinde case. To express this, a known Sangh leader is soon going to write a big essay on this in the Sangh’s newsletter which is carry a post-mortem report of Shinde’s take on saffron terrorism.

Rajnath Singh is being extra cautious when it comes to choosing his team and is paying extra attention to what the Sangh, Advani, Gadkari and Sushma have to say. Rajnath also knows that Gadkari and Sushma played the pivotal role in making him the party president. That’s because when Sushma realised that a unanimous decision was not being taken about her, she quietly forwarded Rajnath’s name. In any case, Sushma wants nothing to do with the Advani vs Mohan Bhagwat case, which is now an open secret. Thus, Rajnath has left it upon Sushma to choose the party secretary from the woman’s quota. As of now, the names being considered for the post include Uma Bharti, Karuna Shukla, Kiran Maheshwari and Smriti Irani. Rajnath has also indicated that the next president of the Mahila Morcha will depend solely on Sushma Swaraj. Rajnath is thus trying to maintain a good relationship with the senior leaders of the party.

In order to prove his loyalty to the Gandhi family, Central Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde may have used the phrase of “saffron terrorism” at the Congress Chintan Shivir in Jaipur, but the phrase may haunt him for some time to come and cause trouble for him. The top leadership of the Sangh Parivar has taken the allegation very seriously and there was a meeting between the top leadership of the Sangh and the BJP in Delhi which was attended by new BJP President Rajnath Singh, prominent member Murli Manohar Joshi and Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. In the Budget session that starts from February 21, the BJP is going to take an aggressive stance against Shinde. In a way, the BJP has adopted the same strategy against Shinde as it had done for P Chidambaram in the past. And to sharpen the spear of attack, the party has given the responsibility to Swaraj.

A few days ago, the Milan Banerjee Memorial Lecture was held at New Delhi’s India International Centre. Among the participants were not only two judges from international courts but also Chief Justice of India Atlamas Kabir. But the most surprising presence at the event was that of Sonia Gandhi, who entered the hall with quick steps and sans any coterie or security. She went on to the stage and greeted Milan Banerjee’s sons Gaurav and Debal Banerjee. Thereafter she took the front seat with Justice Dalbir Bhandari of the International Court, who was present there with his wife. She keenly listened to Sir Greenwood’s lecture and met several current and former judges with great warmth before departing.

“Vibrant Gujarat”didn’t get the desired results for Narendra Modi. While Ratan Tata, Ambani brothers and Adani sang paeans to Modi, most other industrialists limited Modi and his charisma to Gujarat. But of those who gave new wings to his overriding ambitions, Gautam Adani was foremost. Anil Ambani also gave words to Modi’s dormant desires. Referring to Makar Sankranti, Gautam Adani said how Gujarat was set to celebrate the day when the wings changed from the south to north. Somewhere, Adani was referring to how Modi winds will also blow towards north, that is, Delhi. Konstantin Markelov, chairman of the regional government of Astrakhan, a province in Russia, even went to length of directly congratulating Modi for winning the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in advance.

After Modi conquered Gujarat, most prominent dailies carried a big advertisement the next day, which said, “Jeeta hai Gujarat, ab jeetega Bharat”. This multi-coloured ad had pictures of Narendra Modi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. These ads were sponsored by Lehar Singh Siroya of Karnataka Vidhan Parishad. This proves that somewhere or the other, Modi has connections with Karnataka’s prominent Lingayat leader and BJP rebel B S Yeddyurappa. Because Lehar Singh is the same person who is considered to be extremely close to Yeddyurappa. Apart from this, Modi is in constant touch with tribal leader P A Sangma. It will be no exaggeration to say that if this time Modi gets to lead the BJP, he may try to get Yeddyurappa’s Janata Party in Karnataka, Keshubhai’s Gujarat Parivartan Party and P S Sangma’s National People’s Party to join the BJP.

A master of the craft of politics, Kamal Nath didn’t disappoint Sonia Gandhi in her expectations of him. He was chosen as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister over Pavan Bansal only because Sonia and her strategists knew that there might be trouble with numbers when it came to voting on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Parliament. But Kamal Nath reigned in BSP supremo Mayavati. When debate was on in full swing in Lok Sabha, Kamal Nath reached the PM’s chambers with Mayavati. Sources reveal that the important meeting was also attended by Satish Mishra and it went the way it had to. After the meeting, Mayavati was seen exiting the room with a smile, and the result of the meeting was that the BSP got space for its office in Lutyen’s Delhi immediately. For both the PM and Sonia, FDI had become a matter of prestige and Kamal Nath didn’t let their trust dwindle in him.

It’s a case of sour grapes. No matter how much the Congress runs down Modi’s high-tech initiative and new holographic 3D campaigning, the truth is that this unique campaign model has worried the Congress managers. And now an American PR company, which is responsible for working on Rahul Gandhi’s image, is trying to come up with something similar. The technology used by Narendra Modi has patent rights with a company called Musion in the UK and it has a contract with Modi until 2014. Under the contract, no other leader in India can use it before 2014. That is because Musion has a policy wherein it takes up only one leader in a country as a partner and charges quite a neat sum for the same. Before this, the company has used the technology for rockstars such as Madonna and Black Eyes Peas. And Narendra Modi fans in India consider him nothing less than a rockstar.

The search is on for a new BJP president on a war footing. After Gadkari completes his tenure as party president, the BJP will get a new chief under the guidance of Sangh. For now, the Sangh is mulling over two names – Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. The person who will be chosen as the party president will be done while keeping in mind that under the leadership of this person, the BJP reaches its logical place in the decisive Lok Sabha elections. Sangh’s top leadership is divided when it comes to Sushma and Rajnath Singh. One camp is calling Rajnath the ideal choice and is pushing his name forward with the reason that he has a rural image and is totally dedicated to the Sangh. On the other hand, the other camp believes that Singh doesn’t have any decisive qualities and charismatic personality that might help the party win the elections; Sushma Swaraj has a mass appeal that is unparalleled. She is a woman, is a better orator and has great leadership qualities. But the question between Sushma and Rajnath still remains.