Pee Kee’s cat lives
Cats, they say, have nine lives. So does Prashant Kishor, alias PK. The political campaign specialist has coolly walked back into the BJP fold, thanks to a little push from his other mentor, Nitish Kumar. A ‘rather usual person’ is how Bihar CM described him to the BJP chief, by way of re-introduction. Not that Amit Shah had any doubts.
PK, after all, has come back with an added advantage—knowledge of the innards of the Congress party. Plus he special access to the Gandhi scions, particularly Priyanka Vadra, has given him exclusive insight into the workings of the family. None of it has helped PK get his bills cleared by the tight-fisted Congress treasurer Motilal Vora though. Vorasaab scoffed at PK’s ‘inflated bills’, citing the low Congress score in the UP Assembly. Well, his teammates claim PK’s with the cash-rich BJP, so not exactly starving.
Lonely Lalu
Ever since RJD chief announced his ‘BJP hatao desh bachao’ rally in Patna his troubles have compounded. His sons lost power in Bihar, his party got pushed out of the grand alliance, CBI-ED been conducting all kinds benami probe on him and his family. Finally, he has been left high and dry by the Congress high command.
Neither Sonia nor Rahul Gandhi will attend his show. Ghulam Nabi Azad will be reading out Sonia’s speech. The Bihar unit of the Congress, it seems, did not want the Gandhis to share stage with Lalu and his Yadav clan. Whether their inputs came via a prompting from Rahul, is not known though.
New Governor for TN?
Tamil Nadu will get a new Governor when the other four gubernatorial vacancies are filled up early September. That’s the buzz. The move is intended to Governor C.Vidyasagar Rao breathe easy. It saves Rao from taking a call on the newly merged AIADMK and its numerical strength in the House. Also, he can leave the tricky decision of the confidence vote issue to his successor.
Yet another merger
Vaiko is a restless soul. He has been part of very many alliances and combinations in Tamil Nadu politics. But now it seems, he wants to settle down. These thoughts have come to him after his recent visit to his oldest friend in politics, M. Karunanidhi. Don’t be surprised, a close Vaiko aide says, if there’s a DMK, MDMK merger.
Dera’s crimes
While all other political parties are busy distancing themselves from the controversial Dhera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh and his rampaging followers, the CPI-M’s playing up another angle. The Marxist party is taking credit for its role in exposing the ‘Fake Baba’ and his misdeeds. Desh Sevak, a Punjab/Haryana based CPI-M run daily, was the only publication that carried reports on journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati’s murder after he had printed stories against the Dera chief.
Chhatrapati was bumped off after he had printed the rape victims letter to then PM and Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court, in his paper Poora Saach. His son Ansul has been on the news channels last two days, but way back in 2002 no one was ready to print the story of his father’s fight and death, against the powerful Dera chief. Nor about his sexual exploits.
Who’s in, who’s out?
The Union Cabinet reshuffle/expansion has to happen by September 5, that’s before the inauspicious pitru paksha or during the Navratra, that’s September 20. But the Luytens’ Delhi was abuzz with speculations on who’s in and who’s out. The biggest was around Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule. There’s a possibility of her induction into the government, a NCP leader claimed. In reality, however, nobody knew what’s on the PM’s mind. Except, perhaps, Amit Shah.
Santwana Bhattacharya
The author is Political Editor, TNIE. Email: santwana@newindianexpress.com