BJP party boss Amit Shah and his entourage could not take part in the oath-taking ceremony of the Manipur CM. the reason is that the chartered plane they were flying in developed a technical snag by the time it flew into Agra. Shah was sent back to Delhi. With him on the flight were senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu and others. Word from the plane reached us that the moment the technical snag developed and the plane started jolting, Naidu’s face went pale and he admitted to Shah that this is the ninth time that a plane in which was flying had developed a technical problem. At which another party colleague quipped, “Oh God, then it is dangerous to fly with you!” To manage the situation, though, the Shah of BJP said that his horoscope says he will never have a problem in flying, so anyone flying with him is safe, which brought some relief to the panicking passengers!

There was a time when ‘Shotgun’, the shoot from the hip yesteryear film ‘villain’ Shatrughan Sinha was considered the diadem of BJP’s star campaigners. But in the changed scenario in the BJP, due to his brash statements, the top bosses of the party are upset with him. At the time when the poll campaign was at its peak in UP, a senior journalists with known BJP sympathies, actually asked s top party leader why Shotgun is not being brought in to campaign. The neta replied, with sarcasm clearly writ: “Heis our most expensive star campaigner, which is why the party does not like to deploy him. See, you send him to campaign somewhere, and he does not get up from bed before 11 i the morning. Then he gets ready by around one or two in the afternoon and sends his demand for a chopper or a plane. He addresses a maximum of two rallies in the day and then retires for the day, and that too, in some Five Star hotel or the other. Even our two topmost leaders do not make such heavy demands!”

Congress VP Rahul Gandhi’s most trusted campaigner is known to be Mohan Prakash. And Rahul is in the habit of asking him to ensure a party victory in one state or the other every time there are state polls. Whereas his political acumen shows in the fact that during the Janata Wave decades ago, he had won once as an MLA, that’s all. His detractors do not forget to remind Rahul that Mohan Prakash had ruined the Congress’ chances in the 2014 General Elections. Thereafter, in whichever state he was sent to, the party hid bitten dust. The party was licked in the Maharashtra BMC polls, whereas Mohan had been sent there as general secretary to ensure a Congress win. The critics are demanding that he be sacked ahead of the six more municipal polls in Maharashtra. But Mohan Prakash is completely oblivious of this, and is regularly seen flashing a smile from his brand new Audi.

The Delhi municipal polls have become a matter of life and death for state Congress headman Ajay Maken. He is putting in his all to ensure that the Congress returns to power in the civic body polls. Sources say that party VP Rahul Gandhi has expressed his blind support in Maken’s abilities and the latter does not want to give it a lie. Maken is said to be taking measured steps all the time, so much so that he has rejected the candidature nominees even from the senior-most leaders. Those close to developments say that Maken has hired not just one or two, but three survey agencies. Their job it is to conduct surveys from time to time to seek correct pictures of the ground reality of the popularity of expectant candidates. He will then shortlist the names according to the ratings and send it up to 10 Janpath for finalisation of the names of actual candidates. The High Command will finally put the seal of approval. Maken’s tireless efforts to ensure victory are okay, but there have been very few so far who have been able to get a seismic measure of the mood of Delhi voters.

Amar Singh seems desperate these days to join the BJP. To that end, he first met Uma Bharati with a request to get this moving, but Bharati could achieve little. Amar Singh then knocked on the doors of Yogi Adityanath, whose efforts bombed. A frustrated Singh tired to meet top RSS leader Krishan Gopal, but failed. It is learnt that finally he made repeated calls to Rajnath Singh, but Rajnath did not find it opportune to take his call.

Mulayam Singh’s dearest brother Shivpal Yadav has played the havoc, scuttlebutt has it. It is said that in more than two dozen Yadav-dominated seats, Shivpal has tried to subvert Akhilesh’s men’s chances. This was disclosed to Akhilesh by his state intelligence agencies, who said Shivpal has, in these seats, tried to bolster the chances of either BJP or BSP candidates. Sources say that this chasm between the uncle and nephew Akhilesh started the day when per force, Shivpal had to bow down to Akhilesh being the national party chief and the election mascot for the UP polls. Forced to lick his wounds, uncle Shivpal had to move to Akhilesh’s durbar to ask for the poll ticket from the Karhal seat in Mainpuri for his son Aditya, as well as the Jaswant Nagar seat poll ticket for himself. But the ever polite Akhilesh turned down the request. “Uncle, you know that we are giving one ticket to one person from any given family, so this cannot be done. Sorry!”
At which, Shivpal is said to have shot back: “Isn’t it the same party from which nine members of one single family were given tickets in the last elections!” But Akhilesh wouldn’t budge.
So Shivpal stomped out of the room and convened a meeting of his trusted lieutenants and swore them to ensure that Akhilesh does not come back as the CM this time around!

The BJP bosses are said to be peeved with Anupriya Patel. It is said that the party boss, Amit Shan, himself feels that Anu’s mother Krishna Patel has larger pull on the backward Kurmi voters in Uttar Pradesh. It has also been alleged by many that Anu’s hubby has been demanding money for allocating tickets for the polls from many wishful. Sources say that Anupriya has been sent a demand-to-reply on these issues.
भाजपा का शीर्ष नेतृत्व अनुप्रिया पटेल से नाराज़ है, सूत्र बताते हैं कि स्वयं अमित शाह को ऐसा लगता है कि कुर्मी वोटरों का समर्थन अनुप्रिया से कहीं ज्यादा उनकी मां कृष्णा पटेल को मिल रहा है। अनुप्रिया के पति पर भी कथित तौर पर कई उम्मीदवारों ने टिकट के एवज में पैसे मांगने के सनसनीखेज आरोप लगाए हैं, सूत्र बताते हैं कि स्वयं षाह ने इस बाबत अनुप्रिया से जवाब तलब किया है।

Just two days ahead of the polls in Lucknow, Prateek, the adopted second son of once Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, desired to meet his elder brother, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav. Apparently, Prateek had pressed the alarm button. That day, Prateek called Akhilesh twice in the morning asking to meet him, but sources say the latter told him that he was busy in crucial meetings. Usually reliable sources say that later, Prateek tried to call bro Akhilesh twice in the afternoon, but the latter did not respond. So Prateek decided to crash-land into Akhilesh’s home that evening. He demanded an immediate meeting with the CM, but found his brother engrossed in an urgent meeting. So he barged in and asked: “Does the honourable CM even have a minute to spare for his brother?” Akhilesh, the consummate politician that he is now, sat his half-brother by his side in the meeting. After the meeting ended, Prateek handed Akhilesh a list of around 40 SP leaders who, Prateek said, were plotting to defeat his wife Aparna in her constituency, Lucknow Cantonment. He wanted ‘bhaiya’ Akhilesh to speak to those leaders and desist them. But Akhilesh said, “Bro, these are but foot soldiers… you want me to talk to them!” At that, Prateek said: “At least, your officials can do that.”
Akhilesh said that was possible, and he’d look into that, but just when Prateek was leaving, the CM said: “Bro, the polls are on, so could you not find a better time to buy that Lamborghini of yours?” A crestfallen Prateek left the CM’s office.
But then, Akhilesh made no phone calls to any of those 40. And the word rang out clear, that Akhilesh wants Prateek’s wife Aparna to be worsted in the polls.
That night itself, Prateek spoke to his father Mulayam about this. Mulayam called up Akhilesh, but the latter did not respond. So Prateek got the message loud and clear, sources say.

There is an interesting merry-go-round in the purchase of crude oil. The established norm was that the concerned ministry would raise the demand for the volume of crude needed for the country from time to time. This would then translate to the finance ministry being asked to raise the US dollars from the international market, for crude is purchased against USD. The dollars having been bought, India would need to pay up and get the crude. Now it seems that that function has also been taken over by the PMO. It itself raises the purchase of crude and when that is to be done. Now, it is not really a coincidence that just after India buys the dollars and pays for the purchase of crude that the dollar value plummets in the international market, and then, the biggest oil shark in the country, a private operator, buys up the cheap dollars, only to pay for its own crude purchases!
सबको मालूम है कि पहले कि मान्य परंपराओं में क्रूड ऑयल की खरीददारी को अंजाम देने के लिए फैसला पेट्रोलियम मंत्रालय लेता था और वह भी वित्त मंत्रालय को संज्ञान में रख कर कि कितना क्रूड ऑयल खरीदना है और कब खरीदना है? पेट्रोलियम मंत्रालय के डिमांड पर वित्त मंत्रालय का काम इसके लिए डॉलर जुटाने का होता था। अब नए और बदले घटनाक्रमों में इस पुरानी आदतों को भी रिटायर कर दिया गया है, विश्वस्त सूत्र बताते हैं कि अब इस खरीददारी की कमान भी पीएमओ के पास आ गई है। सूत्र बताते हैं कि अब पीएमओ ही तय कर रहा है कि क्रूड ऑयल की कितनी खरीद होनी है और कब होनी है। क्या यह महज इत्तफाक है कि क्रूड ऑयल की सरकारी खरीद के बाद यूं अचानक रुपये कुलांचे भरता है और डॉलर के रेट कम हो जाते हैं, उसके बाद तेल क्षेत्र की एक बड़ी कंपनी को इशारा मिल जाता है कि सस्ते दामों पर क्रूड ऑयल खरीदने का यह सबसे नायाब मौका है। और वह कंपनी यह मौका हाथ

There was much heat and dust flying around in UP over the arrest of the editor(digital edition) of the Hindi edition of a prominent newspaper’s website for publishing the results of anexit poll on UP, which actually showed the BJP winning the state. However, though the English edition of the same website had put this survey up much more prominently, nothing happened to its editor. One wonders why. Anyway, till date it is not clear which company had conducted the survey. The email ID mentioned in the website reads drsrdi@gmail.com. Sources point out that by RDI there could be two possible organisations. The first is the Research and Development International. The MD of this company is one Rajiv Gupta, who denies that his organisation does not all conduct surveys. It is only involved in training officials of the human resources ministry. The second could be Research and Development Initiative, which is run by a one Devendra Kumar, who is close to BJP boss Amit Shah. But Kumar too says his organisation has no experience in running exit polls. Reports say that immediately after the surfacing of the poll results, the Election Commission filed 15 FIRs from as many places and it was under the initiative of a Ghaziabad police station that the Hindi editor was arrested overnight.