They say that a top industrialist of West Bengal, who has also his own daily newspapers in neighbouring Bihar and Jharkhand, took an initiative to set up a meeting between former Jharkhand CM and an ex-BJPite, Babulal Marandi, with BJP supremo Amit Shah. Sources tell us that the Machiavellian political engineer Shah told Marandi: “Your leaders are all running about here and there. Instead of that, you should come with all of them and merge your party into my party. I cannot assure you the post of the CM in Jharkhand, but surely we will make you a Rajya Sabha member and also bring you into the Central ministry.” It seemed like a fruitful meeting, after all, and Marandi asked for a while to weigh his bulls, and took the next flight to Ranchi. As he sat down on his seat, next to him was sitting another top industrialist. The latter said: “This is unacceptable indignity showered on you by the BJP, so why don’t you join the Congress? I shall arrange for you to meet Rahul Gandhi personally.” On hearing that, emplaned sources reveal that Marandi put his hands up to his forehead in obeisance to the Almighty: “In your world, when it rains, it pours!”

The top Congress youth leader from Rajasthan’s political flight seemed grounded for a while and he was forlorn. During a recent meeting with Congress VP Rahul Gandhi, the latter apparently told Pilot that he must not forget to consult Congress biggie from the state, Ashok Gehlot, before taking any major decision. RaGa explained that Gehlot has been at the vanguard of maintaining unanimity in the party. Scuttlebutt is that after the meeting, Pilot is supposed to have sounded aggrieved to a a handful of his favourite political newsmakers. He reportedly told that after the rout of the party in the state, when no state leader had the gumption of confronting the Vasundhara Raje dictatorship in the state, it was he, Pilot alone who had cruised the Congress across the state’s youth cadre… and now to be told to genuflect to Gehlot! But the journos caressed his ego, subtly, and assured him that his fate would be just like that of Captain Amrinder Singh in Punjab, and he would get the command in Rajasthan. On hearing such assurances, apparently, Sachin ‘piloted’ his own new fanciful flight back to Jaipur.

The reports of fabled criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani asking for a monumental fee of Rs 3.5 crore to defend Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may have shocked many, but the real story goes like this. Jethmalani, who has been defending Kejriwal in the criminal defamation case filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Supreme Court, had earlier made a small request to Kejriwal, asking for a ticket for one of his favourites to contest in the municipal polls. Arvind Kejriwal had initially agreed. But later, either he forgot or chose to deny Jethmalani and the ticket was not given. Hence, in his fury, Jethmalani sent him that huge bill.

The moment Yogi Adityanath in his first cabinet meeting waived off the loans of 21.5 lakh farmers of Uttar Pradesh worth Rs 36359 crore, its resonance could be heard in other states as well. The BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra lapped it up and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is going to bring in a similar scheme for farmers of his state. Though Punjab has a Congress government, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has indicated in his core committee meeting that a similar scheme will be brought for farmers of his state as well. On the other hand, Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to implement the scheme not only for small and marginal farmers but for all farmers in the state.

Just like PM Narendra Modi at the Centre, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath too is a complete workaholic. He sits in his office till so late that it has become a headache for not just the ministers and officials, but the security personnel as well. It is normal for Yogi to be found in office till at least 11 in the night. This is in sharp contrast to the two previous state CMs: Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. They had set up offices in their residences and would conduct their official work from there itself, and would summon the officials there. In contrast, Yogi is of the opinion that office work must be concluded in the office itself. To the extent that he does not like to carry his own ministries’ files to his home. Accustomed to the functioning of the two previous CMs, it will take some time for this new work culture to sink in in the state.

The promulgator of the slogan Digital India in the country, PM Narendra Modi is somewhat worried that even now, some 42 lakh government officials prefer to use the emails and servers of foreign companies. This despite the fact that the law amended in 2013 says clearly that government officials have to use their dot.in email IDs. So far, only eight lakh government officials have been able to avail of that facility, though from 2004 itself, the amended sections 3 and 4 of the relevant law had made this mandatory.

Mukesh Ambani, who has already ruffled the feathers of all the top telecom companies in the country by launching his Reliance Jio, is now set to enter the billions of rupee worth of direct-to-home, or DEH sector. As of now, big players like Tata, Sun, Airtel and Videocon are in the DTH business. Ambani, sources reveal, has planned to give his DTH services free of cost for applicants for the first six months, and then launch it formally at price point much lesser that the one currently being charged by the existing players. DTH shares had seen a huge splash recently, but it seems now the market is set for some turbulence ahead.

Last Wednesday, the fire alarms in North Block suddenly started shrieking. The security agencies went into a tizzy because Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was still working in his office there. Firefighting equipment was out in less than a minute, but there was no trace of even a spark anywhere. Investigations were conducted duly, initially suspecting a short circuit somewhere. But later it transpired that an employee there had lit up a cigarette!

After the massive win in Uttar Pradesh, BJP president Amit Shah is now gearing up to sweep other states like Odisha. A recent public survey by the party shows that BJP is in a great spot in the eastern state. In fact, it is no longer a triangular contest in the coastal state between BJP, Janata Dal (Biju) and Congress, the latter having been swept away to the Bay of Bengal. It is now a direct trial at the hustings between BJP and JDB. The Shah-Modi duo wanted Dharmendra Pradhan to become the party’s face in Odisha. They also felt that Pradhan should remain a minister at the centre and yet, get into Odisha politics more intensively. But they soon realised that presently, Pradhan is a long way behind incumbent CM Naveen Patnaik in the popularity graph. Then the crafty Shah put his bets on Giridhar Gamang. Gamang recently met Shah and it has now been decided that he will be made a Rajya Sabha MP from UP and later, he will be made the party’s torchbearer in Odisha.

Dipendra Hooda at one time had the complete trust and support of Rahul Gandhi. Which is why he had been allowed to decide on the selection of Congress candidates for the just gone by UP polls. But the Congress received an historic drubbing in the state. Yet, Rahul’s faith in the Hooda is remained unshakable. Before leaving for the UK, Rahul had said that Dipendra’s father ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda should be made the party’s face in the next Haryana elections. But immediately on his return, some top Haryana leaders – Captain Ajay Yadav, Kuldip Bishnoi, Kuldip Sharma, et al – requested for an appointment with RaGa. They clearly told him that the schism between Jat and non-Jats in Haryana have widened so much that if any Jat is made the party’s face, it will split all the non-Jat voters and will be pocketed by the BJP. So it is better, they gently opined, that Congress goes to the Haryana polls faceless. And Rahul agreed to their logic.