In the assembly elections of five states, Priyanka Gandhi was coming out as the biggest star campaigner of the Congress party. Her meetings in states like Assam and Kerala were attracting a large crowd, and in a way, her charisma was starting to engulf the people. However, suddenly she received an order from the Working President of Congress i.e. her mother Sonia Gandhi that she should keep her focus confined to Uttar Pradesh. Sources associated with the Congress claim that in fact, Sonia Gandhi wants that if the Congress performs better in Kerala, Assam, and Tamil Nadu, then the credit should only be given to Rahul Gandhi, who has been working hard in these states for a long time. So, with two days left in the election campaign, Priyanka backtracked herself, stating that her husband Robert Vadra’s Covid report came back positive. While Priyanka’s own report came negative. So, in a changed scenario, Priyanka has shifted her focus to UP where the upcoming Panchayat elections are to be held on April 15, 19, 26, and 29. The results of these elections are also to come on May 2. In a way, the panchayat elections will prove to be an ordeal for the BJP government of UP, especially in Western UP, where it will learn as to how much the ongoing farmers’ agitation has hurt the saffron party. Anyway, only a few months are left in the UP assembly elections for which Priyanka has formed 8 teams. If Congress sources are to be believed, for the assembly elections, Priyanka has told these potential candidates that ‘Your responsibility is to ensure victory for the Congress-backed candidates in the civic elections.’ Anyway, the Congress party is struggling with a lack of funds at the moment. Potential claimants have also been told that ‘they should bear the expenses of candidates of their constituencies in the civic elections. That is, in a way, 10 Janpath has made it clear to Priyanka Gandhi that Rahul Gandhi will remain the country’s leader while she should confine herself to UP only.

When politics changes color, the colors of even the biggest political leaders changes. If sources are to be believed, Chirag Paswan may merge his party with the BJP in the coming times. Recently, Rajkumar Singh, the only MLA of Chirag’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar, has joined Nitish Kumar’s JDU. Even before Rajkumar, more than 200 LJP leaders have taken shelter in Nitish’s camp. Even many MPs from Chirag’s party are said to be in contact with Nitish, one of whom is Chandan Singh, brother of Surajbhan Singh. Even Chirag’s uncle Pashupati Paras maintains a soft corner towards Nitish, as Nitish made him a minister in his government without Paras being an MLA. Given this, Chirag’s party and his family are constantly in danger of breakdown. Before the assembly elections, many rebel leaders of Bihar BJP had joined the LJP, in which names can be taken from Rameshwar Chaurasia to Rajendra Singh. Chirag had also given LJP tickets to these rebels, but all these leaders were defeated, and now it is said that they are looking to return to the parent party -BJP. There is another way in front of Chirag i.e. to take the hand of his friend Tejashwi Yadav and form an alliance with the RJD. But in the past, this move of LJP was completely smashed in Bihar, when Ram Vilas Paswan held Lalu’s hand in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and Paswan’s LJP could win only four seats. So, Nitish has now put Chirag on his target this time and with him around, LJP does not have a possibility of return to the NDA alliance. So senior BJP strategists have advised Chirag to ‘merge his party LJP with BJP’, so that Nitish cannot stop him from wanting to become a minister at the Center. Chirag still has the age at his side, and he has to play a long political inning, so he is seriously contemplating this proposal of BJP.

The script of removal of former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat, was written a year ago. It is said that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had already submitted a report about Trivendra Singh to the party high command, clearly stating that ‘if he is not changed, then the BJP’s defeat in the upcoming assembly elections will be certain.’ But due to the corona epidemic, Rawat got a year-long deferment. There were several reasons behind Trivendra’s departure, such as his excessive self-reliance on the bureaucracy, ignoring the party cadre, and several serious allegations of corruption. Radhika Jha, an IAS officer, was being termed as Super CM by the relevant power circles. As the successor of Trivendra, many names, including Dhan Singh Rawat, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Ajay Bhatt, and Anil Baluni, came to the fore, but the dark horse was an unintentional face ‘Tirath Singh Rawat’, who was not given a ticket in the 2017 assembly elections. However, he won the election on a BJP ticket from Pauri in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It is said that Doval, RSS, and Nishank played an important role in furthering Tirath’s name. Doval had an eye on the Pauri parliamentary seat from where he wants his son Shaurya Doval to contest the election. It is being said that by going to Trivendra Singh, the BJP top has given a direct message to many Chief Ministers, “Do the work or be ready to go.” This means that swords are hanging on Manohar Lal Khattar, Viplav Deb, and Jairam Thakur.

The frontline ‘G-23’, led by disgruntled Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, may have broken down and leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Jitin Prasad have once again reached the shelter of their high command, but leaders like Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari, Vivek Tankha, Bhupendra Singh Hooda are still slaves in the hands of Azad under the guise of ‘G-7’. Now it has also become clear that in the states where the elections will be held, the leaders of ‘G-7’ will wake up sentiment against their own party Congress in these states. Anand Sharma has opened the front in the Bengal elections by tweeting against Congress. In the future, the ‘G-7’ can hold rallies in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. It is being said that if Hooda wanted it, the Manohar Lal Khattar government of Haryana could have been suffocated, but with a ‘change’ in Hooda, the Khattar government has easily won the no-confidence motion. It is said that Hooda is deeply distressed about his case of CBI and ED. The CBI is still investigating the Rs 1500 crore Manesar land scam case, besides the ED summoning Hooda in the ‘money laundering case in the same month of February. It is said that troubled Hooda came to Azad’s shelter and Azad spoke to a prominent BJP leader and gave Hooda immediate relief in these matters. Ghulam Nabi Azad can also contest the next election of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly by forming his own regional party and he can tie up with BJP post-election when the time comes to form a government.

RSS’s strategist S. Gurumurthy has started giving face to the saffron aspirations in Tamil Nadu and perhaps his biggest success is to inspire Amma’s friend Sasikala to retire from politics. If sources are to be believed, first Gurumurthy wanted Sasikala’s nephew Dinakaran to merge his party with AIADMK and Sasikala would also return home, but neither Panneerselvam nor Palaniswami agreed. Sasikala belongs to the Thevar caste, the vote share of this caste in Tamil Nadu is around 10 percent. The DMK and AIDMK are eyeing this vote bank, as thevar votes are decisive in 38 assembly seats in the state. The news of Sasikala’s retirement was also shocking that some 10 days ago, Sasikala and TTV Dinakaran had spoken of reopening the 2017 petition in which both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam were to be surrounded by the AIADMK leadership’s decision. The BJP also felt that if Sasikala continued to promote Dinakaran’s party, it could have an impact on 60-70 seats. In the last 10 years, the total assets of Dinakaran have increased from 3.48 crores to 11.19 crores. Sasikala’s assets worth more than Rs 200 crore are already being investigated by ED and Income Tax Department. Among the Benami properties, Sasikala, her sister-in-law Jay Ilavarasi, and nephew VN Sudhakaran also have a separate case of assets worth more than Rs 2000 crore. So, through Sasikala, the BJP has placed a big bet. If the Thevar votes fall in the AIADMK’s court, then the BJP has an impact on its Brahmin and forward votes. On the other hand, DMK has to leave seats for Congress, Left, PMK, and many other smaller parties. The impact of PMK is on the Vaniyar caste. and the BJP has understood this ethnic arithmetic in a short time.

Today is the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the famous brigade ground in Kolkata and to make this rally a success, the BJP has put a lot of vigor on the forefront. The saffron army, which specializes in creating political news, has created an atmosphere hoping that Bengal’s ‘Dada’ would come to the rally. Since Saurabh is also the chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), due to this, Saurabh’s dialogue with Home Minister Amit Shah was very much connected. In addition to the ‘political game’, Shah is equally interested in the game of cricket. But left-wing Ganguly is still shying away from joining the saffron camp, citing his recent ‘angioplasty’. Sources even claim that if Dada had trouble coming to the PM’s stage, then the PM himself can also go to his house to enquire about Dada’s well-being. This will be a ‘picture perfect’ opportunity for the media and if even after that Saurabh does not enter active politics, BJP can run an ’emotional card’ in the name of Saurabh that ‘If the people of the state elect for BJP, then Saurabh will become the Chief Minister. In this, ‘Dilip Ghosh and Shubhendu Adhikari may be appointed as two deputy chief ministers of the state to teach Saurabh a political career. The BJP’s vote share was 40 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, compared to 43 percent of the TMC, but these votes were meant for reelecting Modi as the PM of the country. As the BJP received merely 10 percent votes in the 2016 assembly elections, so to reduce Didi’s lead, stars like Mithun Chakraborty and Prasenjit may also join BJP in the PM’s March 7 rally. Mamata had brought Mithun to the Rajya Sabha, but due to his name floating in the Saradha scam, Mithun had to resign from his Rajya Sabha membership. In recent days, Mithun has traveled to Nagpur where he met RSS’s Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and when asked what happened between him and Bhagwat, Mithun had said – “We spoke on spiritual aspects” In today’s rally of PM Modi, it will now become clear whether Mithun Chakraborty has got the right address this time.

If you remember, just three or four days ago, in his Bengal rally, PM threw a new jibe that ‘last time the election of Bengal was announced on 3 March, it seems that the election notification will be issued on 7 March this time. This raises the question as to if a veteran leader like Modi was unaware that a notification for the assembly elections could be issued some 10 days before he anticipated or did he shrewdly run his political stance, and in this stunt, rivals like Mamata were caught. If sources are to be believed, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a long list of lukewarm announcements and with the PM’s speech, Didi’s people made the wrong assumption that they had 10 more days left to make announcements. But as soon as the press conference of the Election Commission convened on Friday, Mamata’s strategists were left dumbstruck as the Election Commission did not give them a chance to think anything. The announcement of voting in 8 phases in Bengal is a declaration of the rigid plans of the central government. That is, phase-by-phase elections in Bengal will be held under the vigilant eyes of the central teams, i.e. there is complete preparation to put brakes on the unbridled plans of the Trinamool cadre. As it is, the BJP has made the Bengal election its prestige issue and if sources are to be believed, the Center can notify the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act at any time after the end of the Assam elections, i.e. after April 6 and sources reveal that for the remaining 5 stages of West Bengal ‘CAA’ can be a big issue. Even in Assam, the BJP is confident that it can form a government again because the opposition is quite scattered there. After the agreement between Congress and Badruddin Ajmal in AIUDF, the BJP is confident that there can be large-scale polarization of votes and Hindu votes can fall in BJP’s kitty here. At the same time, Congress also has no charismatic leader like Tarun Gogoi, his son Gaurav Gogoi is very young and he lacks experience. Apart from this, with all the parties like Bodo People’s Front, Asgaman Parishad, AASU being in the fray, there is a danger of opposition votes being split, BJP can take advantage of this situation.

Ever since the notification for the assembly elections of 5 states has been issued, all the attention of the BJP led central government has shifted to these states. The results of these elections are to come on May 2, which means that the focus of the central government strategists has shifted. Anyway, for the last one month, the central government has not taken any initiative to negotiate with the farmers, so how to have a dialogue now? The harvesting season is on the head, so most of the farmers have started worrying about harvesting their crops. The movement which was earlier under the patronage of different farmer organizations of Punjab and Haryana is now dominated by the Tikait brothers, who talk of Parliament march sometimes, and sometimes of campaigning against BJP in West Bengal elections. At the same time, most of the farmers are of the opinion that they have nothing to do with any political stream, they are concerned only with farming. At the same time, some farmers feel that it is just a BJP game to get their movement captured in the borders of Punjab and Haryana. But the number of people who give moral and emotional support to the movement is constantly increasing. Therefore, the central government, sensing the urgency of the matter, can now send Rajnath Singh for talks with the farmers.

Even though Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is talking of bringing petrol and diesel under the purview of GST to bring down the skyrocketing prices of petrochemicals and is looking forward to sending the matter to the GST Council, but this matter is not so easy. If petrol and diesel really fall under the purview of GST, then its price maybe half. The government gets imported petrol around Rs 30 per liter, if it adds Rs 5 dealer commission and handling charge, then it will be Rs 35, if a maximum of 28 percent GST is levied on it, then it will add Rs 9.80. Even if 50 percent center CESS is imposed on it amounting to 4.90 rupees, then the cost of petrol will be less than Rs. 50. But there are other plans of the central government, the government has set a target of tax collection of Rs 3.60 lakh crore from petrol-diesel only in its latest budget, in which case the possibility of lowering the price of petrol-diesel seems false.

Has Mumbai, the industrial capital of India, has been entangled in the new political strings? Now a demand has started rising that Mumbai should be separated from Maharashtra and given the status of UT. The entire ruckus started with the statement of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wherein, he said that until a decision of the Supreme Court on Belagavi (Belgaum) comes, it should be declared as UT i.e. Union Territory, so that it will neither be in Karnataka nor Maharashtra can claim it. After Thackeray’s statement, Karnataka came to a boil and its Deputy Chief Minister, Laxman Sawadi first raised the demand to declare Mumbai a part of Karnataka, as two other ministers of Karnataka’s Yeddiyurappa government- Ramesh Jerky Holi and Sasikala Jole – also gave statements on the lines of the Deputy Chief Minister. It is worth mentioning that Marathi is spoken more than Kannada in many parts of the Belagavi region of Karnataka, such as Niyani. Uddhav played his emotional card on this aspect however, it fell back on him. Years ago, Bombay, now Mumbai, was the part of the Bombay Presidency Estate out of which, states like Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra were carved out. It is worth mentioning that after the Maharashtra agitation in 1960, Bombay was declared the capital of the newly created state of Maharashtra. Although the BJP is currently in power in Karnataka, but the party has kept quiet on the issue, as it knows that by bringing in this Mumbai issue to the fore, there can be a ruckus in Maharashtra, where the BJP currently has 105 MLAs.