In the recent past, Railways’ former public relations officer Anil Saxena was transferred to Kolkata. Saxena is currently an officer in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and his transfer orders had come from the ministry itself. Saxena is well in terms with a few Railways beat journalists and was available for them 24*7. Henceforth, many journalists urged Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to help Saxena in getting a relief from this order as his retirement is due in a year’s time now. It is said that to this Piyush Goyal replied – “Had it been some other ministry, I would have accepted the requested.” The journalists were also left with nothing more to hear.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had proposed to grant a separate religion status to the Lingayat of the state, and now this very move is proving to be the master stroke because now 70 organisations of Lingayats have written a letter to Modi and Shah, urging them to immediately accept this proposal of Siddaramaiah and have given them a deadline to consider it as early as Wednesday. They have also threatened that if this proposal is not accepted by this Wednesday, the Lingayat vote bank will shift to Congress in the upcoming elections. At the same time BJP argues that Basavanna (12th century Lingayat philosopher) was a follower of Hinduism, but the organisations are not ready for it.

Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal’s hopes are right on the track. Of late, he is counted among the close aides of BJP president Amit Shah. So, stunned by the results of UP by-polls, BJP handed over the responsibility of re-blooming its withered ‘lotus’ to Goyal and thus he spent a fortnight in Lucknow prior to the recently conducted UP Rajya Sabha polls.
In a bid to make the Opposition taste the dirt, a strategic planning was done. First of all, saffron candidates were enlisted in the order of preference, Arun Jaitley being at the top of the list. Instead of 37, a bouquet of total 39 senior BJP MLAs was prepped. The responsibility of decorating this bouquet was handed over to minister Satish Mahana. Similarly, the responsibility of keeping an eye on the groups of the 39-39 MLAs was handed over to another minister. Prior to the final voting, a ‘mock drill’ was conducted for the MLAs. The first-term NDA MLAs were given special training on how to cast their vote and this important responsibility was shouldered by Piyush Goyal himself.
Goyal has now also mastered the art of Vote Management. Apparently, ensuring the victory of Anil Agarwal was a risky business. He needed 14 votes of Second Preference. BJP had only 12 votes left on its own. When the results came out, Agarwal got 4 votes from independents and other upper caste MLAs, and this way Agarwal secured the win as well as Piyush Goyal proved himself as a newly emerged strategist.

Enthused over giving a new face to the Third Front, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had visited Delhi in recent past. She had to meet NCP leader Sharad Pawar. Everything was scheduled when, at the very last moment, Congress’ senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad arrived unannounced at the NCP leader’s office. Sources say that Azad urged Pawar to make sure that Mamata ‘Didi’ mustn’t give any such post-meeting statements in the media that it seems like the Congress is left out from this initiative of the oppositions. After getting the consent of Pawar, Azad left from there. Then Didi arrived Pawar’s office, and God knows what did this master of politics explained to Mamata that later in the evening she said, “We will fight together.” After this, Didi rung-up Sonia, fixed up a meeting and happily went on to meet her.

There is a curiosity over what was it that Congress’ K C Venugopal said to the AIADMK leaders which triggered a physical fight in the Lok Sabha on last Tuesday. So what happened was, when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended the House on misconduct by AIADMK members, MPs started walking out one by one. At the same time, Venugopal, who was being seated behind Sonia Gandhi, allegedly told something to the AIADMK MPs in Tamil that they flared up and all hell broke loose. Thankfully, understanding the repercussions of this, Sonia stood up immediately and managed to stop the AIADMK MPs. As soon as the young Congress leaders saw the situation, they ran straight up to Venugopal and gathered around him. Since the House had already been adjourned by then, the press gallery was also empty. Incidentally, a North Indian journalist was present at the spot and witnessed the entire incident. He tried knowing from the Congress MPs that after all what was it exactly that Venugopal had said which lead to such rage? To this, the reply came – “When you cannot report it, what will you do by knowing that Tamil word?” And with this, the matter was buried into the ground.

The BJP-connect of the lately much-in-controversy Cambridge Analytica came to light in the 2012-14 period. Sources claim that this organisation had a major role in strongly shaping Modi’s election campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. When Congress had to face a brutal defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and the party indulged in the analyses mode, it was then that Rahul suggested that why doesn’t the party seek help from the same organisation? And from here, Cambridge found its passage to Congress. Ever since the image of Congress soared on the social media. So did hike Rahul’s image on a continuous basis. Sources reveal that the sudden improvement in the image of Congress scared BJP to the extent that whatever followed from there could be considered a reaction to that very fear.

The Cambridge-BJP relation goes long back in time. According to sources, when the BJP’s high profile leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy contested the Lok Sabha election from Chhapra in 2004, he took the help of this very company. It is said that this company played a crucial role in the Chhapra election for Rudy. The company had conducted a comprehensive survey in Chhapra and statistically determined that which booth has the majority of which caste and class, what are their traditional views towards the party and out of these how many are floating voters. Based on this report, Rudy and BJP finalized their booth management strategies. On a different subject, though, Rajiv Pratap Rudy had to face defeat from Lalu in this election.

The passengers of a Delhi-Dehradun Indigo flight were left amazed when they saw VIPs Priyanka Gandhi and Robert Vadra on-board the plane, the very last minute, and quietly took the last seats. Later when an announcement was made, it was acknowledged that the pilot of this plane was an Italian and the cabin crew was from Poland. The Vadras were headed to meet their children in Dehradun.

A journey similar to that of Anil Baluni, from zero to hero, is of Tripura’s newly crowned CM Biplab Deb, who had come all the way from Tripura to Delhi for his education. Here in Delhi, he came across BJP MP from Satna – Ganesh Singh. The soft-spoken and multitalented Biplab impressed Singh, so much so that this BJP leader appointed Biplab as his assistant.
As mentioned earlier, Biplab’s talents were multi-dimensional of which one was his driving skills. So he not only efficiently steered Singh’s car but also his political career. He formed a core group in Delhi to which prominent journalists, academicians, etc. were associated. These veterans were shouldered with the responsibility of deciding on the questions to be tabled by Singh, who is consecutively three-term MP from Madhya Pradesh’s Satna currently, in the Parliament.
After this Biplab came across RSS ideologist and Modi’s near and dear Sunil Deodhar, who later took him under his wing for BJP’s ‘Mission Tripura’ and from here onward, Biplab’s stars touched a new high.

Experience mining minister of the Modi govt, Narendra Singh Tomar, is struggling with his delivery & performance. Perhaps this is the reason why the government has tampered with his portfolio multiple times.
Anyhow, in his attempts to up the game, Tomar is being seen, of late, very proactive in the functioning of his ministry. In the recent past, his ministry organised a ‘Sand Mining Framework Conclave’ in Delhi. It was a unique experiment of its kind in which representatives of different states participated. Bureaucrats and various sand mining companies also joined-in. As soon as the conclave ended, many officers and others sought a copy of this framework from the organisers. The person who was responsible for the distribution of these copies said that a person, who claimed to be a ministry personnel, took away the stack and now he is left with only 10 of them. On this, the people then asked for its digital or soft copy on their e-mails. Sources reveal that no digital copy was prepared by the ministry.
Our Prime Minister wants to take the country into a new digital era, but what should he do with his own cabinet colleagues?