Relations between Central Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Mamata Banerjee continue to worsen. Mamata is not liking Trivedi’s corporate behaviour and there will be questions on the way the rail wagon tender worth Rs 26,000 crore was given to PSU BHEL through just nomination. Sources reveal that BHEL has subcontracted the work to a private company Titagarh Wagon. This private company allegedly has close relations with Prafful Patel and Dinesh Trivedi. Sam Pitroda also played a pivotal role in this deal being finalised; Trivedi made Pitroda the head of the committee formed to modernise the railways.

What is common to both brothers Rahul and Varun? Both of them are extremely tech savvy. Rahul is crazy about his Blackberry phone, and his younger brother can’t get enough of Twitter. Even during important party meetings, Rahul seems to be busy with his Blackberry messenger, and Varun uses the social networking site Twitter to talk about a lot of current issues. Be it tax evasion during F1, the KG Basin or about the black money Indians have hoarded in Swiss banks, Varun’s tweets are not only catching a lot of eyeballs but are also becoming a worry for the senior party members. But who can dare to tell Varun to stop?

It is believed that the sudden decision of a change of guard in Arunachal Pradesh came from 10, Janpath itself. In the northeast, it is only the two states of Arunachal and Assam where apart from Christians, other religious groups are in large numbers. The Sangh is also pretty active in the two states and balancing it out are active Christian missionaries. Arunachal shared boundary with China and there are a large number of Buddhists here. In the two districts of Tirap and Changlang of Arunachal, the Naga group is pretty active, where it is often claimed that the group pressurises others to convert, that is, it directly benefits the Christian missionaries. The former Chief Minister of Arunachal Jarbom Gamlin had become pretty strict on the Nagas and the Christian missionaries were obviously upset with him. So the baton was handed over to Nabam Tuki of Nayishi community on Sonia’s directions. It is worth mentioning that Tuki has unshaking faith in Christianity there were a lot of prayers offered in churches to make him the chief minister. The prayers must have reached God, because that is why madam heard them.

Digvijay’s attack on Shri Shri Ravi Shankar is a part of a well thought-out strategy. Digvijay Singh has got hold of all such papers that prove how during Anna’s 13-day fast and function at Ram Lila Maidan was assisted by Shri Shri by way of money, effort and labour. From tents and pandals to puris made of pure ghee came at a daily expense of about Rs 6 lakh, which was born by Shri Shri’s organisation. Ravi Shankar is Mahesh Yogi’s disciple and he has very good relations with the BJP, especially Advani. No wonder the Congress is eyeing him with eyes full of suspicion.

Relations between Dinesh Trivedi and Mamata Banerjee have soured. Mamata feels that Trivedi doesn’t have very good relations with other Trinamool Parliamentarians. Trivedi, on the other hand, has started to sideline all those in the railway ministry who were close to Mamata. People such as Ratan Mukherji, Jayanto Saha, Ashok Subramaniam and said to be dissatisfied with the new railway minister’s way of working. As a PS, Trivedi has brought in a woman IAS from the West Bengal cadre. She is a Punjabi and is called Omita Paul in hushed voices. It is said that when Mamata met Trivedi in Kolkata recently, she let her displeasure known about Trivedi preferring to meet industrialists at his home instead of his office in the railway ministry. All in all, Trivedi’s train may get off the track any time.

This much is for sure that this time the entire command of the Uttar Pradesh elections will be in the hands of the Rahul Gandhi brigade. Team Rahul also has its eyes set on Uttarakhand and Punjab. Digvijay Singh has already donned the role of the narrator. For political management and crisis management, Team Rahul is seeking never-before help in the form of Ahmed Patel’s services. Barring Patel, most of those loyal to Sonia have given up active politics and the ones who are still active include Parvez Hashmi, Jitin Prasad, Sanjay Nirupam, Jyotiraditya Scindia, R P N Singh, Ravneet Singh, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, Ashok Tanwar, Sachin Pilot and Pradeep Jain. Priyanka Gandhi is also getting ready to support Rahul Gandhi, but her responsibilities may be limited to election campaigning.

Those who know Sharad Pawar are calling it the man’s biggest political strategy until now. Hardly a day goes by when Pawar is not trying to make contact with leaders from other political parties. He has good relations with Mamata Banerjee, Navin Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav and he keeps working on them like a gardener tending his garden. These days he is also connected to Jayalalithaa and is in touch with Gadkari and Advani of the BJP. The jan-chetna yatra by Advani has his support in many ways. So it isn’t merely a coincidence that there has been such a direct quote from him regarding UPA-2 and the prime minister. His aggressive avatar will become more so around November 8-9. But the government is also prepared for damage control. Some of Pawar’s business associated as in Tihar Jail and some statements about him are registered in government files. Given a change, the government will not hold back from answering the attack.

It looks like Gehlot may have to go, more sooner than later. The accusations of trying to protect Maderana in the Bhanwari Devi episode may not be too serious for Gehlot, but his inefficiency with administration is being looked at by the Congress high command seriously. He has lagged behind in trying to being all castes together and making them work together as one. Usually, the Congress formula that would work in Rajasthan was that no matter which caste the chief minister belonged to, the state head was always made keeping in mind the caste equations in the state. And this is where Gehlot tripped. He made the state head one of his own people – Chandrabhan – and is having to face the ire of the Jat votebank. The Congress high command is considering two names for Gehlot’s position – Shanti Dhariwal and C P Joshi. Which means Gehlot may have to pay the price of all the corruption in the state. The other issue that the party people have against Gehlot is that a lot of importance is being given to people from outside.

On the occasion of Diwali, BJP’s National President Nitin Gadkari organised a dinner for journalists in Delhi. A horde of journalists attended the do at his residence at 13, Teen Murti Lane – almost to start a stampede. But Gadkari met all journalists candidly and was proudly telling people how he had lost 11 kg in the past few days. A foodie, he stayed away from the food area. Rudy kept him company all the time, Nirmala Sitaraman was surrounded by journalists all the time, albeit Tarun Vijay looked a little aloof from everyone else. Gadkari’s media advisor Ashok Tandon and Raj Kumar Sharma acted like hosts and asked after the well-being of those present. Manoj Gaikwad was the most active and flitted from table to table asking after everyone. Dinner was a lovely array of Maharashtrian dishes – from Jhumpa Bhakri to Marathi-style Baigan ka chokha. As a diabetic, Gadkari may stay away from sweets but for the journalists, there was everything from jalebi and gulab jamun to ice creams. The ice cream was a tad hard, but Gadkari was all soft and yielding with the journalists.

Knowingly or unknowingly, the Central Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s comments on the 2G scam have gone in favour of the corporates and against the court. The Congress party itself is shocked by Khurshid’s comments. Ten, Janpath had out him there in place of Verappa Moily only so that a general impression is given that the Congress is in favour of a strong law minister. There is still no clarity if Khurshid’s comments have come on directions from 10, Janpath or because of closeness to corporate houses. When Khurshid was the corporate affairs minister, he became close to several business houses. Such equations were handled by his wife Louis.