Former National Security Advisor and current West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan and Home Minister P Chidambaram are having a face-off of sorts. While the home ministry is in favour of giving more powers to Darjeeling and is Chidambaram is giving a lot of importance to Gorkhaland leader Vimal Gurung. A few days ago, when under the leadership of Jaswant Singh, a group of Gurkha leaders met the home minister, then Chidambaram during a security meaning said that an Interim Regional Authority for Gorkhas in Darjeeling be formed that should act as the governing body during the Bengal elections in May 2011. But Narayanan, the Communist government of the state, and even Mamta Banerjee doesn’t agree with it. When Narayanan had visited Darjeeling, he wore a frown throughout

The prime minister can’t seem to hide his displeasure of one of the cabinet ministers Anand Sharma. But there is something that doesn’t seem to take the mickey out of Sharma. It is believed that Sharma has become extra special to 10 Janpath. If sources are to be believed, he prepares a weekly report on international matters every week and submits it to the Congress high command. Sonia is so happy with Sharma’s understanding of international matters that she wants he should be brought into foreign affairs ministry. The prime minister, on the other hand, wants Kapil Sibal in the same post. Which means S M Krishna has double trouble. If the prime minister succeeds in getting Sibal to the foreign affairs ministry, Sibal’s present post may be given to Salman Khursheed. He may then look for a face like Antuley for the minority affairs that is occupied by Khursheed. That’s because the image of Khursheed is that of a secular open-minded Muslim, an image that doesn’t go with Congress’ vote-bank politics.

Congress managers have come up as the party solace. When the country was abuzz with Commonwealth Games scams and several Congress leaders were under the scanner, such as Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dixit, Jaipal Reddy, and then suddenly, the 2G tapes were leaked or was supposedly handed over to the media. So that the nation’s attention is diverted to the 2G scam from CWG scams. But with the 2G fire, coalition party Dramuk was under the scanner, too, and all the other scams in the past also had Congress leaders’ names in one form of the other. For instance, the food scam heat could be felt by Sharad Pawar. Congress managers are indeed playing their moves smartly.

The Sangh parivar is all abuzz with the latest Wikileaks. The party’s leadership is angry that Rahul Gandhi has compared the Sangh Parivar with the likes of Lashkar-e-toiba and Al-Qaida and thinks it is even more dangerous than these. This has come to light from his conversations with American ambassador Romar. Thus, BJP’s take on Rahul may do a U-turn. The Sangh leadership has warned the BJP leaders to get ready for a stern reply, especially those who were into goodwill gestures towards him, would wait for a two-line conversation with him and even praise him when they got a chance.

Before the telecom sector was the fixed license fee, wherein private companies would pay crores of rupees to the government as license fees. Then the companies put pressure on the then Information Minister Buta Singh to have the government make a migration package, and have a revenue sharing basis instead of a fixed license fees. There was a fair amount of enticement from the private companies, so Buta Singh agreed. But when a case was registered against him, he had to resign. Then came the NDA rule, where Sushma Swaraj became the telecom minister from August 22, 1998, to October 12, 1998 – for a month and 20 days but she refused this proposal by private companies. She was then removed from the minister’s post and made the chief minister of Delhi. Then came Jagmohan, who was given the offer of Rs 400 crore, but he too refused. His lobbyists when had him removed from the post and had Pramod Mahajan made the telecom minister. Mahajan agrees to the proposal and the private companies were overjoyed. Telecom policies were made according to the way Ambani wanted them. When a lot of companies came against him, Atal-Advani had him removed. Sushma was offered the post in 2003, but she opted for health. Arun Shourie took charge of the portfolio next and he took over the job of forwarding former minister Mahajan’s policies. Then came Maran and Raja. Tata wanted Raja, while the other players wanted Maran. All the tapes that have been leaked have shown how Maran was stopped. And now that the Congress is saying the investigation will be done from the NDA regime onwards, Mahajan and Shourie may also be under the scanner. And Raja’s dealings aren’t a secret anymore.

Jagan Reddy is proving to be a bane for Congress. The significant thing is that not only is Jagan getting the support of the public in his home state, but is also being supported by the church. He knows that he is on the Central government’s target and has thus paid a hefty sum as advance tax. He has sold him cement company to the French giant Lafarge and invested that money into his newspaper and TV channel. He is all set to fight a decisive battle with the Congress and is also being supported by the Reddy brothers of the BJP. Jagan and the Reddy brothers are from the same village of Kandappa. Reddy brothers shot to fame with the encouragement of Jagan’s father Rajshekhar Reddy. And now that Jagan is ready to form a regional party of his own, this party may form a coalition with the BJP in the coming elections. BJP estimates that Jagan may prove to be a threat to the Congress in at least 35 seats

One Niira Radia is not enough. The BJP and Congress too have their share of such people and their secret is yet to be exposed. The recent incident is about the BJP. A close friend of a veteran BJP leader, who is fondly called babuji by her, looks after the PR of an industrial house in Delhi. Using her influence, she got the company permission to build a hotel in Dehradoon. When the company started to build a road on government land, the DM would have none of it and stopped the work. The influential lady was beside herself with rage and gave the DM a mouthful. The DM went and complained about the same to the IAS Association and the matter soon reached the CM and the governor. So this veteran leader of the BJP directly threatened the state CM saying that if the road was not ready within 10 days, he would have to lose his chair. He has since been in touch with Koshyari and Khanduri. That means trouble is brewing for the party in Uttarakhand and dissatisfied voices are rearing their head yet again.

The present winter session of the Parliament may be postponed indefinitely from December 13. But if it happens it will be a defeat of sorts for the Congress managers, because it will prove that they were not successful in breaking the Opposition’s unity for demanding a JPC on the 2G spectrum scam. No wonder Pranab da is fuming. So when there was a deadlock in a meeting with the Opposition party members continued, he was enraged and said, “I’ll wait and watch how long you will stick to your guns!” When Pranab da came out of the meeting, a member of the Opposition party advised him, “If you really wanted the Opposition parties’ unity to weaken, you should have postponed the Parliament indefinitely the minute the demand for a JPC was raised. That way, the Opposition party leaders would not have met each other and then wouldn’t have sung the same song.”

Is the country coming close to mid-term polls yet again? If claims of the ministers close to Rahul Gandhi are to be believed, the answer is in the affirmative. Rahul may have had an unpleasant surprise from the Congress’ debacle in Bihar elections, but he isn’t shocked. May be that is the reason he is all the more politically active now. He is not only in constant touch with his young brigade and is also on the lookout for new partners such as the AIDMK. Opposition parties are also of the view that if the deadlock in the Parliament continues, the Congress will have to take some strong steps. An atmosphere for elections is being looked at for the month of September-October. Rahul Gandhi is also said to be of the view that the Lok Sabha elections should also be held along with the UP elections in 2012. Congress managers have estimated that the BJP will not fare so well in UP, Chattisgarh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam. The BJP, on the other hand, feels that the Congress will not make the cut in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Nitish is delighted with the unprecedented win in Bihar and is trying to improve his political footprint on the national arena. Sources reveal that he will carry out a desh yatra along the lines of Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan’s on-foot tour. The motive of the yatra will be to speak against corruption and talk about progress and development. It is believed that this great idea was given to him by Arun Jaitley. Both of them get along really well. Now it remains to be seen where this idea takes him and how far can Nitish swim against the tide.