Last week, NDA candidate for vice presidentship, Venkaiah Naidu threw a lunch for around two hundred people, prominently some top scribes. It was a grand affair. The platter was mouthwatering: Andhra food of all sorts. It is learnt that the entertain his guests, Naidu had flown in all the food material and the chefs from his native Nellore. There was prawn, dry chicken, Nellore fish curry and mutton korma, along with dozens of vegetarian dishes and sweetmeats. At the lunch, prominently present were former India Today scribe and currently Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta, owner Arun Poorie and daughter Koel Poorie, as well as editor Raj Changappa. But though Poorie went up to meet Dasgupta, the latter so much as did not even get up to greet his former boss. Clearly, Swapan Dasgupta is a changed man!

Are there plans afoot to bring in Uttar Pradesh deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya to the ministry in the centre? Political experts say that there could be two calculations behind this. First, if Maurya stays on as deputy CM, he will have to quit his Lok Sabha seat. Now, he is MP from Phoolpur constituency near Allahabad. It has come to the BJP’s knowledge that former CM Mayawati is also eyeing the same seat. The point is that Phoolpur has substantial Dalit voters, and if Maurya quits, it will be nearly impossible for any small-time BJP candidate to take on Mayawati there, so BJP will lose that seat. The second reason behind the plan is that the party bosses are tired of the constant sword rattling between Maurya and CM Yogi Adityanath, and want no such nonsense anymore. Bringing Maurya to Delhi will serve both ends.

The media in Uttar Pradesh is facing a new music from CM Adityanath, who has decided to cut the crap without caring for personal relationships with the journalists. His predecessor, Akhilesh Yadav, is known to have rained moolah on the media from the exchequer. Now the Yogi wants the wheels pushed back. Earlier, journalists had been allocated government houses at less than nominal rents. Yogi got a state-wide survey conducted to see which are the journalists own homes in their own or their wives names. All such scribes are being asked to vacate government housing. Next, he got a physical verification of all the newspapers that come out and claim inflated circulation figures. Hundreds of such newspapers have been identified, whose main business was to claim circulation to get government advertisements. The media, which had connived with the state’s babus, are mighty upset. But Yogi has become meditational in his media cleansing drive.

Ever since the recent marriage of BJP and Nitish Kumar in Bihar, the saffron juggernaut has started putting pressure on its one-time allies Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha to merge their parties with BJP. The BJP is worried that even now it has just 22 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar. If it forges an alliance with Nitish’s JDU, then its seat count will come further down. Now, it is extremely difficult for regional parties like Paswan or Kushwaha’s to vacate their party seats. So the best option is to merge them with the BJP and the party could go to lunch with those seats. It is learnt that sooner than later the two leaders will walk into the saffron fold.

Currently, Mayawati is most worried by Naseemuddin Siddiqui. The latter has been a lieutenant for a long time and is in the know of things. Now, the politico is a regular guest of the Enforcement Directorate. Insiders aver that willy nilly Naseemuddin has decided to turn approver. If this is true it will be a nightmare for Mayawati. He has tonnes of information that the ED is looking for. Besides, during her rule, Mayawati has made few friends outside the party. And this is BJP’s most potent tool in stopping Mayawati from forging a Grand Alliance with Samajwadi Party and Congress in UP.

While Rahul was caught napping on China issue, his cousin Varun Gandhi, despite being a ruling party MP, addressed two Chinese Universities on July 12-13 and earned lavish applause. He was supposed to speak to students of Shanghai and Peking Universities but he first informed the NSA Ajit Doval as well as the Ministry of External Affairs. He was accompanied by Indian ambassador to China Vijay Gokhale, wherever he went in China. His lecture was titled – A Miracle called India. Interestingly, when students at these universities asked questions after his lecture, there was no reflection of bitterness that has crept in due to border dispute in the relations between the two countries. Most of the questions were about Tagore, Buddha and Aamir Khan. Either the Chinese youth was unaware of the dispute or the questions were sponsored.

Sharad Yadav, who is hurt with Nitish Kumar’s attitude, recently called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and poured his heart out to her. He is learned to have told her that now nobody consults him in his own party though Nitish was a nonentity when Sharad won his first election in 1974. He said there is no place for socialism-centered politics and now, not only the time has changed but the meaning of socialism as well. Sonia is learned to have empathized with him and offered him to join the Congress and the party will send him to Rajya Sabha. Sharad thanked her with the bottom of his heart but politely declined the offer saying he was a product of anti-Congressism and opposed the party his entire life. It won’t be possible for him to side with Congress at the far end of his career. So, he will, for the moment, walk alone.

Jitin Prasad once used to be a member of Rahul Gandhi’s inner coterie but has suddenly found himself ignored and isolated in the party. He has been simmering with anger ever since RPN Singh has been appointed in charge of Jharkhand. RG too is quite uneasy ever since he came to know of Jitin’s meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah. In the meeting held two months ago, Jitin is learned to have asked for a Rajya Sabha seat for himself. But, Shah only promised him a party ticket for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. How these parleys were leaked to RG’s office, is something which only Amit Shah or Jitin can tell.

What is a relation between Mayawati’s resignation from Rajya Sabha and Ram Nath Kovind’s elevation as President of India? Kovind is the first Dalit from North India, to be taking the highest position in the country. Earlier Dalit President KR Narayanan was from South India and had a negligible impact on Mayawati’s politics. BJP’s massive victory in UP was because of Dalits who voted for the party in hordes. RSS and BJP, which has always been christened by the opposition as anti-Dalit, have in fact in a thanksgiving gesture selected Kovind but also made inroads in Mayawati’s Dalit constituency. The action might resonate in coming elections in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Gujarat.

Union Minister Harsh Vardhan is visibly disturbed ever since he got additional charge of Environment Ministry. The reason is that he has to reply to opposition’s queries on Genetically Modified Crops. Since, he could not prepare the subject, he is keeping quiet. However, he flew off the handle when during a recent media interaction, someone mentioned ‘GM’. He relaxed after sometime when somebody explained to him that the question was about Genetically Modified Mosquitoes not GM Crops.