BJP President Nitin Gadkari s pretty serious about the UP elections and wants the party to win at least a 100 seats in the 2012 Vidhan Sabha elections. For this the party is concentrating on those from the higher caste, non-Yadav backward caste and the dalit votes. With Rajnath Singh in the lead, a team has been formed along with Kalraj Mishra and Saudan Singh. The entire state has been divided into six parts and 10 teams will be formed for the same. Gadkari has also indicated that money will not be a constraint for the elections. He had arranged Rs 50 lakh for the Kanpur rally. But only money and double-faced people don’t an election make. The party needs a young and charismatic leader like Varun Gandhi. The big question is how the party will bring him back into mainstream politics, when the party is fast becoming a small party of big people

The three prominent leaders of Jammu and Kashmir – Sayyed Ali Gilani, Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed and Yasin Malik may become victims of the new strategy of the Pakistani detective agency ISI. Extremely confidential documents of RAW and IB have revealed that the ISI may get them killed to incite more riots. They will also want to put the blame of the Indian Army in one way of the other so that people take to the streets against the killings. The real people behind the death of Abdul Ghani Lone are coming to light when his own sons Sajjad Lone and Bilal Lone (also leaders of the Hurriyat Conference) spoke on Ghani’s eleventh death anniversary and said he had been killed by their own. The security for these three leaders have been increased but it is equally important to defang the ISI.

The BJP and the Sangh are in for a rude shock and this very week at that. Prominent Sangh leader Indresh Kumar may be arrested. It is possible that Assemanand may confess to more in front of investigating agencies on Monday and everyone feels that he may directly blame Indresh for the bomb blasts in the Samjhauta Express. The Congress is also digging out every bit of his past and investigating agencies are trying to unravel the situation for a mechanical engineer wherein he stayed a bachelor and got associated with the Sangh. The agencies have also found out that Indresh’s family has a jewelry shop in Kaithal in Haryana and it was under the scanner for smuggling of gold biscuits in 1980. The agencies have prepared a tough questionnaire for Indresh to handle, one he can’t dodge. Looks like the saffron brigade is up for some stormy days ahead.

It is likely that on January 15, Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet will see the much awaited and expected Cabinet reshuffle. It is believed that several Congress heavyweights may become a part of it and they spare no opportunity to say that such people should also get a chance to be a part of the government who have worked selflessly for the party. Ten Janpath wants to see Anand Sharma become the foreign minister, while Manmohan Singh feels Kapil Sibal is more suited for the post. The party has also made it clear to the DMK that it wants to retain the telecom ministry in the party. What with the 2G scam, it isn’t surprising but Karunanidhi wants the post for his daughter Kanhimozhi.

In the core group meeting of the BJP, it was decided that in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections in the five states, the party is going to play up the 2G scam, Bofors case, CWG and corruption and raise it in public forums. But the party has also made clear that during the entire outcry, the party will refrain from directly taking any potshots at the Gandhi family – Sonia and Rahul. The party politicians believe that doing it during the last election campaigning did them more harm than good and it backfired. But if reliable sources are to be believed, news is about to be leaked that Sonia has a bank account in Panama and the news has been leaked by one of her confidantes. Now it remains to be seen if the party will keep quiet and refrain from attacking Sonia directly.

There is a ruckus regarding Quattarochi and Bofors at the Truibunal order, and the party high command is a tad displeased with two of its front men – P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherji. But 10 Janpath doesn’t know who really is behind the whole thing. And since the matter doesn’t involve the finance ministry, so it is useless to suspect the past or the present finance minister in the matter. The Tribunal actually comes under the law ministry and when the issue was at its peak, only Hansraj Bhardwaj, the then law minister, had an idea about when a closure report of the same will be prepared. Ten Janpath had not been please with him and he had been sent on a political exile by being made the governor of Karnataka. If assured sources are to be believed, the information has been leaked on Bhardwaj’s behest because he was the only one who had an idea about the closure report. But the question is, why would Bhardwaj, who was once considered to be close to the high command, do something like this? What is possible is that since Bhardwaj has an axe to grind with the Central Law Minister Moily and is still eyeing the position, it works in his favour that the information is leaked and Moily will be framed for the same. He might then appear in a favourable light, but the risk here is much more.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came to India with a large entourage, but left behind several unanswered questions. Indian leaders have assured the Chinese prime minister that the two countries may differ in their viewpoints where internal matters are concerned but shared the same wavelength where foreign policy was concerned. India also told China that is has few friends in the county and the quality of products it sends to India is poor. India also wanted an assurance from the Chinese minister that they be assured that China is not India’s enemy and that goodwill can be introduced and nurtured in the common man. When Opposition party leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj met the prime minister, she asked point blank what the country’s views on terrorism were. “We are neutral,” said the PM. To this, Swaraj asked him how the country could remain neutral when it was surrounded by two countries, one that was a victim of terrorism and the other that encouraged it. And would that mean that they support terrorism. The Chinese PM had no answer to that.

BJP has got its chief minister’s report cards ready and have had their ratings done by an independent agency. In matters of governance and efficient working, Narendra Modi rules the roost. (The BJP keeps conducting such surveys). The best part is that under his rule, corruption is next to nothing. Number two is Chhatisgarh’s Dr Raman Singh. On the bureaucratic level, there is corruption in the state, but Dr Singh’s governance has been efficient, his image is clean and projects for the common man are earning him a lot of goodwill. The state is number one in public distribution system and every man gets his due of government quota of rice every month on time. The government’s data shows each person who has been given the rice in each town and village, by whom and when. Black marketing and scams, therefore, have little room to exist. Shivraj Chauhan is also maintaining his performance while Jharkhand’s Arjun Munda is treading cautiously. After seeing what happened to Madhu Kauda before him, it’s not surprising. Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa takes the cake when it comes to corruption, and Uttarakhand’s Nishank is not far behind. About Nishank’s government it is being said that even the chief minister will have to bribe someone if he wants his secretary transferred.

The Budget session of the Parliament is around the corner and the government is becoming worried about the no-work phase that is currently underway in the government. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s active endeavours in the direction reflect the government’s intentions. When inside the Speaker’s Chambers, the leaders of Opposition party Advani and Sushma Swaraj were talking to Pranab Mukherjee, Mukherjee asked Sushma, “Sushma ji, what will you get if the JPC is formed?” “At least the Parliament will function,” Sushma quipped, leaving Pranab da speechless. She then asked what was wrong in forming a JPC. When during the NDA rule and Congress was in Opposition, the ruling government took all of ten minutes to concede the Opposition’s demand for a JPC. The BJP had even requested Sonia Gandhi to chair the JPC while the tradition is that such a committee is headed by a person from the ruling party. The Congress had then recommended Sharad Pawar’s name. It was the first time in the history of the Parliament that such a committee was headed by a leader from the Opposition party. Sushma in her oratorical style, next wanted to know that if the demand for a JPC was right then, what was wrong with asking for one now?

The comment by Rahul Gandhi in Tamil Nadu has several political connotations, when he said, “The day will come when there will be a Congress government in the state.” As was expected, the coalition party at the Centre, DMK, raised a hue and cry over Rahul’s comments and soon after there was a comment by Rahul refuting the earlier comment. But before this, Rahul had personally met all the state Congress leaders to gauge what will be the outcome if the Congress tries to make it alone in the elections. Before this, he has also had a secret meeting with AIDMK’s main leader and Jayalalitha confidante Maitreyan. Something different is cooking in Tamil Nadu for sure.