Freed of protocol
On the eve of the vice-presidential elections, Venkaiah Naidu organised a lavish lunch for his ‘friends in the media’, ostensibly to bid goodbye to a protocol-free political life. The authentic Andhra spread was to die for. But the real surprise was the active presence of his family, particularly his wife Usha. A rather private person who prefers being with her family and grand-children, Ushaji, Venkaiah revealed, usually never takes part in any public functions. She made an exception when Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers for Lok Sabha polls in 2014 as she felt the country needed his leadership.
She is even reluctant to take up the formal role expected of a vice president’s wife. “Not required. And I can be Ushapati as well as Upa-rashtrapati,’’ Venkaiah said, serving one of his famous quips. Only to be teased by Arun Jaitley later that he would have to now read staid speeches written by officials.
Ringing in the numbers
Despite the overwhelming numbers, the BJP did not take any chances in the vice-presidential polls. It not only got its own MPs to take a coaching class, it also invited the supporting parties. Not leaving it to the parliamentary managers, Amit Shah got a Gujarat MP to individually call each and every MP. Rather candid in his approach, the MP went on to invite NCP and AIADMK factions to the demonstration class, thus showing the surprised leaders regional parties they were marked as NDA members on his list! Nonetheless, cross-voting and cancelled votes could not be avioded.
Much on Sitaram
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s exit from upper house has been quite the talking point. If Srikant Jena felt the choice before Yechury was to be Bhupesh Gupta or Harkishen Singh Surjeet—be a parliamentarian or a coalition builder in 2019. But BJP angry about the killings in Kannur, claimed, in future there would be no Left MP from Kerala in the lower house. “Wishful thinking,’’ is how a CPI-M veteran retorted.
Upper House plan
In the past week, there was much speculation that the BJP is persuading the warring OPS and EPS factions to merge, sans TTV and Sasikala, and join the government. Though both sides later junked the idea as a rumour, there’s no denying that the treasury benches are making an all-out effort to cobble numbers in the Rajya Sabha before 2019. BJP has become the single-largest party with 58 MPs as against Congress’ 57, but still not a majority. Expanding NDA’s alliance base with regional parties, like the JD-U, a merged AIADMK, is the works. BJP ministers are, apparently, wooing the Samajwadis as well. BJP chief Amit Shah, it seems, has been inducted in the Upper House to primarily change NDA’s upper house template.
Joining govt?
With talks of a Cabinet expansion in the air, AIADMK’s V. Maitreyan asked NCP’s Surpriya Sule when her party is joining the NDA Government. Sule shot back, “The day you do!” On a more serious note, Sule narrated how a Ganesha gifted by Jayalalithaa was the central piece of the museum she and her mother has set up with memorabilia from Sharad Pawar’s political life.
Santwana Bhattacharya
The author is Political Editor, TNIE. Email: santwana@ newindianexpress.com