Insider-out

Shah Rukh Khan had an unusual escort to Kolkata airport when he went visiting the city for the state-sponsored film festival — Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Insider-out

SRK rides in Didi’s car

Shah Rukh Khan had an unusual escort to Kolkata airport when he went visiting the city for the state-sponsored film festival — Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Lest King Khan missed his Jet Airways flight back to Mumbai, Didi took it upon herself to drive him to airport with her entire retinue. A grateful Shah Rukh was seen touching Didi’s feet after alighting from the CM’s Santro car.

Though SRK chose to ignore a question from a fan — “When was the last time he travelled in the back seat of a small car?” — the answer was obvious. Meanwhile Mukul Roy’s son, two-time TMC MLA Shubhranshu Roy, who has not left the party with his father, has quipped: “My Pishi (Aunt) Mamata is matchless!”

Sharad Yadav’s loss

Unfortunately for old Sharad Yadav, ace Congress lawyer Kapil Sibal lost his winning  touch when it came to Yadav’s case against Nitish Kumar in the Election Commission. Sibal had earlier helped then UP CM Akhilesh Yadav wrest the party name and symbol from his father. The erstwhile Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh’s shoddy application, of course, would have helped. Anyway, Sibal could not pull it off for Sharad Yadav.

The latter has not only lost the party and symbol to Kumar, but is also about to lose his Rajya Sabha seat. A confidant of Yadav lamented, “Sharadji was led up the garden path by Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sitaram Yechury — now he may not have a Luytens’ bungalow to live in.” The socialist leader had imagined he was going to be leading the opposition unity march into 2019, but then Congress and Left decided to go their own ways, leaving him high and dry.

AICC media rejig

Much whispering took place over the induction of two new aides for Randeep Singh Surjewala, the media cell in-charge of AICC, in the shape of Pranab Jha and Priyanka Chaturvedi. The gossip-worthy element: Jha had previously been removed from the department by Surjewala. This was after Jha, a newbie, had taken to coaching senior Congressmen on what to say and not to say at the party’s official briefings, and Kapil Sibal particularly had taken offence.

Jha was also curiously back just a day after Surjewala held a detailed briefing on the Rafale deal, setting tongues wagging. However, those who saw some dire message for Surjewala were soon proved wrong when Rahul Gandhi took to tweeting on the deal, quite furiously. Well, Jha seems to have been brought back to fill in for former MP and Sunil Dutt’s daughter Priya Dutt and Chaturvedi in Tom Vadakkan’s slot. Vadakkan, an all-weather sentinel of the media cell, has become a talking head at TV studios and Dutt sees little reason to battle for the Congress at the headquarters when she feels sidelined in Mumbai.

Gujarat list

“The only surprise about the first list of BJP candidates is that there’s no surprise,” quipped an old-timer from the state. Almost all sitting MLAs have been repeated -- which is usually an unlikely strategy for a party trying to shrug off the burden of anti-incumbency. What kind of nervousness could this be? There’s some heavy whispering, it seems, about Amit Shah’s old constituency Naranpur and Narendra Modi’s old favourite Maninagar.

Could the sitting BJP legislator be talking to the Congress, as is being said, to up the pressure? That would be a totally avoidable thing for the BJP campaign. A Shah kinsperson was being talked about for Naranpur too, but since both seats are in the second phase, the suspense will get prolonged.

As for the Congress, after all the hoopla about Young Turks joining, it is finding it difficult to accomodate Alpesh Thakor’s people and even Hardik Patel’s. Jignesh Mevani has been easily dealt with — his own formal distance from the Congress and his lack of a widespread base helped there.

Santwana Bhattacharya

The author is Political Editor, TNIE.

Email: santwana@newindianexpress.com

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