By Nora Chopra
HOODA MAY BREAK AWAY FROM CONGRESS
Believe it or not, the former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was the darling of the Congress leadership till yesterday, is the villain of the day. It is believed that Hooda is toying with the idea of going the Wassan way. The Congress party that went out of its way to keep him pleased, even at the cost of a humiliating defeat and the displeasure of most of the leaders in the state, has now been pushed to the sidelines. Unhappy over the changed situation, where he is the target of the entire leadership that had danced to his tune till the other day, has left him fuming. He has planned a meeting of the Congress workers some time very soon to get the feel of what they want. In this meeting, no senior Congress leader has been invited. He will go for a new regional party if he gets a positive response from the workers and his supporters in the state.
IRS OFFICERS PAYING PRICE FOR HONESTY
Najeeb Shah, one of the most honest IRS officers and PK Das, another equally honest IRS officer of 1983 batch, working as DG and ADG DRI respectively, are likely to be replaced by two IRS officers from Gujarat. Jayant Mishra, the chief commissioner, Baroda and Sanjeev Mishra, the chief commissioner customs, Ahmedabad – both these Gujarat officers enjoy the blessings of a powerful industrialist, who is under the scanner of DRI and is believed to be involved in various scams of about Rs 35 000 crores. Both Shah and Das, if shunted out, will be paying the price of being honest.
BJP BEGINS 2015 WELL, FM’S LUNCHEON A BIG HIT
2014 is certainly the year the BJP is not going to forget easily. Now, the modified BJP leaders are hoping that 2015 will be even better. To give it an auspicious start, some leaders have now planned to celebrate their victory and to begin with Arun Jaitley, who is the only minister in the union cabinet who failed to get elected, threw a lavish lunch party at his 2 Krishna Menon Marg residence to welcome 2015. Jaitley’s party was attended by everyone and any one who is someone in the party or the media. The cooks were especially flown from Amritsar to prepare sumptuous vegetarian delicacies. The guests were even surprised to find that non-vegetarian food had also been included in the menu. But besides the food, it was Amit Shah who was the biggest hit. BJP leaders as well as media persons fell on each other to shake hands with Shah, the man who is credited with the honour of changing the BJP’s fortunes in the country. It was time for absolute merrymaking. While most were happy and praising Jaitley, there were even some who were heard taking a dig at Jaitley, saying all this is only a sweetener to negate the impact of the bitter budget pill.
CONGRESS GIVES TICKETS TO LOSERS AGAIN
The Congress, which ended up as a third player in the last assembly elections of 2013 in Delhi, is extremely jittery. Not knowing how to go about it, the Congress leadership has started violating its own rules and eligibility criteria. Initially, the party had decided that those people who had come third or have got less than 10,000 votes in the last assembly election of 2013 will not be given tickets, but in the first list itself, the party has violated its eligibility criteria. In the first list of 25 names, the party has not kept its own words. Among the names the party has released so far, more than half a dozen names are of those who either came third or got less than 10,000 votes. The prominent names among such candidates are of the ex minister Narendranath, who lost by 15,000 votes; Subhash Chopra, who came third; Rajkumar Chauhan, who lost by 10,585 votes; Dhanwati Chandelia lost by 11,000 votes; Bhisham Sharma, who lost two elections, one in 2008 and in 2013 he lost again by 12,000 votes. Again in Babarpur, Zakir lost by a mere 3,000 votes but in his place the party is considering the name of Vinay Sharma, who lost the election in 2008. Similarly, Javed Mirza, who lost the Matia Mahal seat by 3,000 votes, has been replaced by an outsider, Shoeib Ahmad. To balance out Zakir, the party is said to be considering the name of one Saifi from Kirari in place of Amit Mullick who lost by 54,000 votes in 2013. Anil Bhardwaj, who has lost only one election in 2013 but has won two elections of 2003 and 2008, is likely to be denied the ticket. Ticket seekers are now questioning the leadership what is the eligibility criteria.
GHULAM NABI SIDELINED AFTER J&K FIASCO
Ghulam Nabi Azad has been snubbed by Sonia Gandhi. There may be some good news for Anand Sharma as the current leader of the opposition, Azad, is unlikely to return to the Rajya Sabha, thus vacating the seat for Sharma if the party leaders agree. It was with an eye on his Rajya Sabha seat that Azad was making all those statements in which he said that the Congress would support the PDP. Next, he said that Congress was ready to form a government, while stressing it was the responsibility of the PDP to form a secular government and so on. But these statements did not go on well both with the PDP and the Congress leadership. Mufti is supposed to have lodged complaint with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi. It was in view of this complaint that Azad was told to shut up. Press release was issued by the state unit distancing itself from Azad’s statements. Now with PDP unhappy over Azad’s claims and the possibility of a secular government in Jammu and Kashmir receding, Azad’s chances of coming back to Rajya Sabha is also growing slim. Meanwhile, President’s Rule is likely to be imposed on the state of J&K in the wake of the governor’s failure to constitute a government.
MAKEN HOLIDAYS AS DELHI POLLS NEAR
Ajay Maken, who is likely to be the chairman of the Congress campaign committee for Delhi elections, is missing in action. With just a month to go for the Assembly polls in Delhi, Maken is believed to be holidaying somewhere abroad leaving all the candidates in lurch. The election of the Delhi cantonment members is important because both the Congress and the BJP fight on their symbols and are considered as the trendsetters. Indira Gandhi, after her defeat in 1977, had got her first victory in the election of the cantt board members, setting the trend for her return in 1980. But Maken’s absence has created quite a flutter among the Congress candidates from all the eight wards, all of whom were selected by Maken under whose parliamentary constituency comes the cantt area. But his absence has created panic among the Congress candidates. Meanwhile, Congress had asked Maken to either contest from the New Delhi assembly seat against Arvind Kejriwal or recommend some name who can give a fight to the AA P leader who defeated the ex chief minister Sheila Dikshit. But Maken has not only refused to take on the cudgels but is yet to recommend any name. Meanwhile, the RSS is planning to field Kiran Bedi from New Delhi seat against Kejriwal.
(IPA)