NEW DELHI: “Everyone is talking to everyone,” Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel has admitted on television. But some others continue to remain in denial.
Take Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati. Going by a newspaper report, the lady who gets birthday gifts that add up to crores of rupees, chose a ‘lowly’ Maruti 800 to drive up to Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani’s home. Of course, she is denying that this happened.
“No truck”, a television channel slug said without a hint of irony in an apparent reference to the carstory, “with UPA, NDA”.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh is protesting that too much is being read into his meetings, which too happen to be with everyone. He says he talked to Pranab Mukherjee because the Congress veteran was an “elder brother” to him. And with BJP president Rajnath Singh, it was only at a wedding function — even if the video clip showed the two deep in conspiratorial conversation.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar continues to play footsie with everyone.
After he got photographed with BJP’s Narendra Modi at a National Democratic Alliance show of strength rally in Ludhiana, Nitish, who had earlier said he wouldn’t share a dais with the Gujarat chief minister, reportedly hinted “he had no other option”. Modi walked up to him on the stage and he had to shake hands. Nitish also took a phone call from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — to discuss rehabilitation of Kosi flood victims.
Another Bihar stalwart, Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, has got calls from both Sharad Yadav of Janata Dal (U) and Ajit Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal. But an LJP leader insisted to a news agency that the calls had only been to inquire about a fire at Paswan’s home. Incidentally, Congress President Sonia Gandhi too had also called up Paswan after the fire.
Even the temporary United States ambassador seems to have caught the bug.
Showing incredible timing, US Charge d’Affaires Peter Burleigh made “courtesy calls” on Advani, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Prajya Rajyam’s Chiranjeevi in the middle of the silly season when the visits were bound to be seen as a US conspiracy to keep Left away from the ‘Centre’ of power.