Walkover to Mehbooba?
J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s election from Ananthnag, slated on June 22, is drawing more attention in Pakistan than here. Point being made is, neither her arch rival National Conference nor the Congress is interested in posing a serious challenge to her. Both parties have put up candidates who are anything but consequential. Engineer Rashid, the loose cannon MLA from Langate, Kupwara, has created a chain-mail alleging a pact has been reached in New Delhi to keep the PDP-BJP Government afloat in Srinagar. All because NC chief Omar Abdullah has barely addressed one low-key gathering and Congress’ ex-CM Ghulam Nabi Azad never bothered to campaign once. That a walk-over is being engineered, Rashid has certainly convinced the Pak media which has picked on his mail. The J&K separatist lobby, however, has duly given a boycott call.
Singh & Sting
If Amar Singh has surfaced, can stings, taps and tapes be far behind. Amidst the VVIP phone taping allegations, the newly elected Rajya Sabha member claims he knew it all along. These surreptitious recordings provided the raw material for the alleged conversation he had with Bollywood star Bipasha Basu, later mixed-n-matched and leaked to the media. He apparently had confronted the Ruias at a London party and was given a solemn denial that they were behind it. Singh—and here’s the catch—apparently knows much more, but will not reveal. Just as he will never write a book exposing his friends or foes or the friend who forgot him.
Of Alliance and Grander Alliance
Ever since the BJP national executive, both the ruling Samajwadi Party and its main rival the Bahujan Samaj Party have open channels with the new Congress general secretary in-charge, Ghulam Nabi Azad. On one side, is the possibility of a grand-alliance idea, comprising SP, Congress, JD-U and Ajit Singh’s RLD and on the other, a simple BSP-Congress understanding. On the latter combination, both Mayawati’s close aide and Azad are in denial. But the SP camp is convinced that the Congress veteran is dialing both Mulayam Singh and Mayawati’s numbers. Hence, the SP will not wait for the grand tidings to materialise, instead will clinch the alliance with RLD soon.
Day of Reckoning
How soon is soon, is a question that’s swirling around the Congress organisational reshuffle—before or after the holiday? Congress vice president likes to take off once in a while, wanting to live the life of a ‘normal’ individual, away from the public glare. According to senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh it could be a matter of days when a new mixed team takes charge. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi will remain the supreme leader. As for Priyanka, no matter how much pressure is put on her, till she herself takes the plunge, no one can predict.