A chief minister of a Hindi-speaking saffron-party ruled state, and who was once a close confidante of Advani, is busy trying to show his skills at singing raga Modi. A few days ago when CM sahib came to Delhi and wanted to meet the PM, he was told to meet Amit Shah instead. He had to wait for two days to meet his own party’s president. When he did get to meet the all-powerful Shah, he asked him, “Is there any service you want from me?” He was told he will be informed if such a need arises. Four-five days later, a phone call from Delhi told him his help was needed in Operation Arunachal. Preparations for assistance were made in a hurry, and now the CM sahib is waiting for some assurance after all the help he gave. The CBI’s sword is only shining more brilliantly, and he is trying to find two words of succor for himself from a silent Delhi.

Prominent south Indian actress Ramya, aka Divya Spandana, had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, and had lost with merely 15,000-17,000 votes. He had been asking to meet Rahul Gandhi for a long time, but there was no reply for RG’s office. Disappointed, she spoke to a regional newspaper and said, “Our party may be in power in the state, but justice is not being done to our community (Vokkaliga). After this, the most prominent Vokkaliga leader H D Deve Gowda rushed to meet her and offer her to join his party – JDS. Ramya had also made up her mind to join Deve Gowda’s party, but the minute Priyanka Gandhi came to know about it, she immediately made a phone call to her and said, “Rahul ji is really busy with the UP election preparations. He wants to meet you as well, but it might take time. Please come to Delhi and meet me in the time being.” A few words by Priyanka had a miraculous effect, and Ramya changed her mind to leave the Congress. She called up Deve Gowda and told him, “You are like my father but I will make the decision about joining the party only in 2019.”

The Congress plans to play a big game in Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. The reins in these two states might be given to an outsider, because the Congress as an organization is struggling in both states due to in-fighting. Not just that, the party also doesn’t seem to be in active mode in these states. In Andhra, the Congress wants to place its bets on Congress’s actor politician Chiranjeevi’s brother Pavan Kalyan, who represents the Kapu community. The community has 15-17 per cent votes in Andhra Pradesh. The second state is Jharkhand, where talks between senior Congress leaders and Babulal Marandi are in the decisive phase. Sources say the Congress has made it clear to Marandi that if he merges his party with the Congress, Marandi might be made the president of state’s unit and also projected as a CM candidate. But voices within the Congress are speaking up against it, and several heavyweight Congress leaders such as Subodh Kant Sahay, Furkan Ansari, Rajendra Singh, and Ajay Singh are not agreeable to the idea. Their view is that if the Congress gives everything to Babulal, what will the future of old party hands be? As a result, these politicians can be heard talking about JMM.

Navjot Singh Siddhu’s worry about his political career is easy to understand. He didn’t get along with Aam Aadmi Party after leaving the BJP, but had been in constant touch with the Congress all along. Sources say he had made a demand of 22 seats for his people from the Congress. Obviously, the Congress was not ready to oblige. Reliable source close to the BJP claim that in the past few days, Siddhu has spoken to at least three top party leaders, and these include Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari. Sources claim he met Nitin Gadkari at his residence in Delhi late at night, and called the BJP his mother during the meeting. Politics does, indeed, make strange bedfellows.

No one came to know about it, but on prime minister’s invitation, Gujarat’s former Prime Minister Anandiben Patel suddenly flew in to Delhi on a special chartered flight. Reliable sources say this one-to-one meeting between the two lasted for about an hour. Sources say the prime minister’s agenda behind the meeting was more about finding out who were behind the ruckus created during Amit Shah’s Patidar meeting in Gujarat a few days ago. Keeping his hand on the political pulse, the prime minister already had the reports by IB and state CID about the same. Sensing the footsteps of the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat and also understanding that the challenge from the Congress and AAP will be a tad more serious this time, the PM does not want to clarify the group he has decided upon. Consequently, a new proposal was put in front of Anandiben. If sources are to be believed, the next person to be nominated for the vice-president’s post might be Anandiben. Although BJP chief Amit Shah wants to press the pause button on her political run by appointing her the governor of a state. But it is said Anandiben Patel is not ready for the same, and that is why this trump card by PM, whose moves never go waste.

Smriti Irani, who ruled the small screen smoothly, has learnt the art of riding the political horse with great acumen, too. Having the courage to knock out her opponent in a moment, Smriti proved as much at a program held in Alwar in Rajasthan recently. She was invited to it as a chief guest, and for some reason, local BJP Parliamentarian Kantilal Bhuria’s name was missed out on the invitation card. Neither was Bhuria invited to the function. But he came for the program, caught hold of the mike and started talking against the organizers of the program, saying those who have joined the party recently didn’t even know how to follow the basic protocol and print the name of the local party Parliamentarian. Smriti was slated to speak next. She left everyone in rapt attention with her oratory skills. She said, “Kantilal ji is my elder brother. He said in his anger but he didn’t know I would speak after him. It is the brother who gives something to the sister on Raksha Bandhan, but her it is the brother who is asking for an invitation. According to the protocol, the local MP is to be merely informed. It is not written anywhere that he has to be invited at all costs. It is also not necessary that the local MP’s name be printed on every card.” Needless to say, this took the sheen off Bhuria ji’s face.

The infighting in the most prominent Yadav family from UP has come on to the streets. But those who know the Yadav family closely are calling it a mere drama. They believe that the way Gayatri Prajapati was dropped from the Cabinet, and then reinstated, the way Shivpal Yadav was shorn of an important ministry, and then given back, is all a big political drama, and is a big part of Akhilesh’s makeover. The entire drama is taking place at the behest of a media management company, which is working towards making Akhilesh into a brand. However, where UP’s Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal is concerned, the young chief minister himself is behind it. Singhal is the son-in-law of the owner of a big newspaper group in UP, and Shivpal had brought him in despite Akhilesh’s objection. But Akhilesh appointed a retired Alok Ranjan as his advisor. That is because compared to SInghal, Ranjan’s image is that of a clean and honest official, and Akhilesh gives a lot of importance to his opinion. A few days ago, Alok Ranjan was sitting next to Akhilesh at a program in Lucknow and giving him some suggestions. Sources say Singhal suddenly came there, and almost scolded Ranjan saying, “Keep these suggestions for later; let some official work happen first. Everyone present there, including Akhilesh, was shocked at this. Thereafter, Akhilesh also decided that without caring for what Shivpal or his father would say about it, he would show Singhal the door, and that is exactly what he did.

What was the first thing Colonel Devendra Sahrawat did after being thrown out from AAP? If sources are to be believed, he had breakfast with Minister for Roads, Surface Transport and Ports, Nitin Gadkari. Serious discussions took place about Delhi’s political scenario, after which Colonel Sahib went for a proposed peripheral expressway tour with Gadkari. He not only went with the minister, he looked at the entire project and also brought the officials to task. He is clearly trying to learn a new political lesson, and his teaches is a dyed-in-wool Sanghi. It seems new things are afoot and new thoughts are just about to be born.

The blames and finger-pointing at Punjab’s prabhari Sanjay Singh are flying in thick and fast. There is talk everywhere that a CD has been made on him. Fanning the gossip fires, Arvind Kejriwal said it openly at his Moga rally that 63 fake CDs of AAP people have been made so far. Sanjay’s worried father finally called him and asked him if he needed help of any kind. Sanjay had just about turned down the offer when a phone call came in from his wife’s family – his brothers-in-law’s (his wife’s brothers’), to be precise – who wanted to know if they should come to Delhi and defend him in a press conference. A surprised and anxious Sanjay told them off by telling them when their own sister never suspected him of straying and never asked for any explanations, why should they be giving so much importance to the matter. The matter was soon brushed under the carpet.

Despite all the challenges and opposition, Aam Aadmi Party seems to be growing stronger in Punjab. A proof of this could be seen at Kejriwal’s Moga rally, which people attended in lakhs despite restrictions by the state government and administration. And this despite the fact that the Congress had organized a car and bike rally on the same day, but only a handful of people attended it. The Badal family allegedly pulled up the schools that supplied its school buses for the rally, despite being told not to do so. When a group of journalists from Delhi was returning after covering the Moga rally, they met an entourage of 30-40 bike riders, who had the Congress flags on their bikes. Then they found out that these bike riders are supporters of former Education Minister Darshan Singh Barar. The journalists wanted to know from them what would happen in Punjab. They all said in unison, “The Congress will form the government this time.” The next question was, “Why has Barar been losing the elections since the past two times?” They were then told that with great cleverness, the Badal family would contest a Congress rebel against him each time, but that this would not happen this time. That is because the Badals are more worried about trying to save their land. The youngsters then asked the journalists to stop for a while so that they could all party-sharty together. One journalist wanted to know who was throwing the party. “Who else but Mr Barar,” came the reply.