The Election Commission’s talk of getting the CBI investigate the Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand is leading to a lot of furrowed brows. Arjun Munda’s close confidante R K Agarwal is scared about how Rs two-and-a-half crore was found in his brother Innova. Arjun Munda is under fire, too. Agarwal’s accountant was also present during the raid and the presence of money is the biggest proof of corruption. For CBI Director A P Singh, too, it is a big test because he was once Arjun Munda’s OSD. And because of the CBI investigation, Arjun Munda’s chief ministership is also under threat.

It is still not clear how the Congress spend two days in trying to make a summary of the Congress’ loss in the UP Assembly elections, and Rahul Gandhi and his party has still not been able to find a scapegoat for itself. With two days of mulling over it, the prince of the party has shifted his focus on Gujarat. Towards the end of this year in December, Assembly elections are about to take place in Gujarat and in the past few years, Narendra Modi has emerged as the biggest challenge to the Gandhi family. So Rahul team is already looking towards Gujarat, and is working on finding Modi’s administration and political mistakes. It is believed that depending on this, a big advertising agency in the country will create a blueprint for the Gujarat publicity campaign for the party. In the UP Mahabharat, Digvijay Singh emerged as the biggest driver for Rahul and maybe because of that Congress had to face such a dismal performance. Now Rahul is looking for someone in Gujarat on whose skills and trust he can again stake his political prowess. A name that is emerging from the mist here is that of Ahmed Patel about whom it is said that Rahul doesn’t like him. But politics makes strange bed partners.

All’s not well for Nitin Gadkari in the party. A few days ago, Gadkari organised a meeting of party’s secretaries at his residence in New Delhi on the pretext of taking stock of the arrangements for the party’s National Conference in Shimla. But he was actually looking at a way of exploring the possibility of another tenure as the party president. It is worth mentioning here that in the party’s National Conference will be held in Shimla in a few months from now and it will be decided whether Gadkari will be chose as the Party President again. Sources close to the Sangh reveal that Gadkari has got a go-ahead for the next tenure. Only the senior party members such as Sushma Swaraj, Advani, Jaitley, Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, Vinay Katiyar and Vijay Goyal have a few questions regarding Gadkari taking on the mantle yet again. But they too have not been able to come up with a name they unanimously agree with and only the name of Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi has been floated. But everyone knows that his stature is smaller in the political arena when compared with Gadkari and thus, the latter stands a much better chance.

Anshuman Mishra, who is now on long holiday in Lake Como – Italy, is planning on writing a book…He regrets his decision on filing nomination from Jharkhand as an independent. He has reportedly spoken to his confidante’s and is quiet happy that he pulled out of the race.
He seems to have no grudge towards Sushma Swaraj, Yashwant Sinha or Advani. He is miffed with Jaitley, Gadkari and others for not discouraging him and also, encouraging BJP MLA’s to support his nomination – only to embarrass him at a later stage. According to him, he sh’d have either been made a candidate of BJP approved by the parliamentary board. He finds merit in Sinha’s argument – although, he exploded and said unkind things for Advani and Sinha – he thinks the observation they made was not out of line. He thinks Money power sh’d not be the way to get into Parliament.

Defence Minister A K Anthony has been able to achieve a lot because of his clean and honest image. But this time, he has to deal with another honest person like him – the general. Now he doesn’t know what to answer to the government or the public. Both General Singh and Anthony have offices on the same floor in South Block in New Delhi. But since the letter has leaked, there’s barely any exchange of greeting between them. Three-four days ago, when Anthony was giving clarifications to the Parliament and the press after the general’s letter got leaked to the prime minister, the general was in Jammu and Kashmir due to his previously scheduled official programme. But look at the active stance the general’s office took – the defence minister’s press conference was just about to go underway, and the general’s office had already passed a statement trashing the letter leak incident. Everyone known Anthony suffers from spondilytis, but he doesn’t have time to consult a doctor. He actually knows what the real pain the neck for him nowadays is. And until such time that the general doesn’t retire or goes on leave, Anthony’s neck troubles are going to stay.

What if all does not get well between the government and the general and their relations reach a fragile all-time low? In the past few days, the general’s wife and daughter have been seen meeting Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj not one but several times. This had led to speculation of some political activity. It is believed that the two families know each other very well ever since the general’s father-in-law was the deputy speaker in Haryana, Sushma was minister under Devi Lal. So, speculation is rife in the political corridors that seeing the general’s popularity among the public, the BJP may make him contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Bhiwani area in Haryana.

After a truce, it seems that Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj can again not see eye to eye. The incident is from President’s address and Sushma Swaraj’s thank you address to the same. The amendment proposal to NCTC was also there that it should not be passed unless all states agreed to it. The 10-minute speech of the Opposition leader was disturbed six times, but it had happened before, too, with Sushma Swaraj when she was speaking on the Telangana issue. Clearly, the BJP Parliamentarians are upset with Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar about this.

For the past few days, prominent leader of the BJP Lal Krishna Advani is feeling alienated in the party. IT is believed that the way Angshuman Mishra, who is a newer face on the horizon of the saffron party, had advised Advani and company to retire from active politics at this stage of their lives, had the inside support of several big leaders of the party. Angshuman’s direct attack on Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha can be connected to the same. Advani also didn’t have too much of a say in the Rajya Sabha elections and neither was he consulted about the ticket distribution. But Gadkari did give a ticket to Najma Heptullah on Advani’s behest. So the grouse that Advani is nowadays nurturing is that only Gadkari has a say in the party and the Parliamentary Board and Election Committee only seals the deal.

In Uttarakhand, Vijay Bahuguna is trying all he can to save his government. He has unconditional support from a big corporate house in this regard. His own son is a director in the company. This company is also said to be close to 10, Janpath. It is also believed that both Sonia and Rahul use the private aircraft supplied by this company. It is being said that every Assembly member has been promised a sum of Rs 10 crore to support the government. But there is something that Harish Rawat has, which has made 18 of the members go underground. Rawat knows that the entire game in the state is related to power projects, where new projects worth Rs 3,200 crore are awaited. Rawat is also miffed with the role of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Choudhury Birendra Singh in the episode. They misled Sonia about the number of supporters in the Assembly. Bhanwar Jitendra Singh’s report brought it all out in the open. In such a scenario, Rawat is also keeping his options open.

There is nothing new in Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi’s episode. Didi and Trivedi had decided a long time ago that they will bid adieu to each other after the Railway Budget. That’s because their relations had been so frayed of late, it had become impossible to mend them. And in any case, in the past few days, Trivedi has grown closer to his former party, the Congress and the party has assured him of a Rajya Sabha seat. Trivedi had clearly stated that he will resign after presenting the Railway Budget. So, pertaining to this, he made several remarks. Such as “The Railway Ministry does not run from Writers Building”, that he listens only to his conscience and so on. The Congress has entrusted Trivedi with an important task – that he divide the Trinamul into two parts. For this Trivedi will have to get at least seven Parliamentarians together. He is in constant tough with upset leaders such as Kabir Suman and Subroto Mukherjee. The Congress has chosen its Vibhishan. All Didi needs is a Ram for herself.