By Nora Chopra
Congress mouthpiece advocates for Sonia Gandhi as Party Chief Yet Again
Rahul or Sonia? The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is likely to return on April 16 from his two months sabbatical he took to meditate and do vipasana, He would then join the Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the kisan rally slated for April 19. All Congressmen are keeping their fingers crossed over what will be Rahul’s role. There is still some kind of scepticism prevailing in the party over Rahul’s take over as Congress President. I There are sections in the party who feel Sonia should continue to lead the party. Sandeep Dikshit, the son of Sheila Dikshit has raised a question over his capabilities and has said that Sonia should lead the party. Ruling out all speculations about Rahul‘s take over, the editorial in its last para of the latest Congress mouthpiece Sandesh says , Sonia Gandhi completed 17 years as Congress president on March 12, 2015. There has been no precedent of any person holding the position of Congress president for 17 years in the 130 years history of the grand old party. Smt. Gandhi has led the party earlier at a time when it was passing through a turmoil and restored it to its primacy once again. She will lead the party in its fight against anti incumbency and falsehood spread by opposition to bring the party to its deserved glory. That is perhaps the view of the Congress bosses around Sonia.
Delhi LG found in questionable company
There is no bar on the Lt. Governor of Delhi Najib Jung to enjoy a dinner at a five star hotel on a Sunday evening. But it becomes delicate when the LG sits and has dinner with a CEO of some questionable company and a PR man of some PR agency. . Eye brows were raised when on last Sunday evening; LG was seen sitting in Bukhara a restaurant in Maurya Sheraton. He was flanked by one Bobby Kewal Ramani, a partner in Perfect Relations and by Khaizad Heerjee the CEO of Aircell the company involved in the spectrum controversy and is being probed by the CBI.
Advani still giving jitters to Modi-Shah duo
Veteran BJP leader LK Advani’s critics have now become sympathetic towards him. His dream of becoming the prime minister remains unfulfilled but Advani is one politician who can still give sleepless nights to his detractors. Ask Amit Shah and Narendra Modi what their take on Advani is. A day before the saffron leadership left for Bangalore for their national executive meeting, the RSS interlocutor Ramlal was sent to Advani to ask him what he would like to speak in Bangalore. Ramlal is supposed to have told him that he just wanted the bullet points of his speech. But contrary to the general perception it was Advani who refused to speak at all at the national executive. But Advani’s refusal to speak gave the jitters to Amit Shah who saw some conspiracy behind it. The thinking in the top brass was that Advani not delivering the speech could create problems for the party because even if he utters one off the record sentence against the party or the party line then it would mean fresh trouble for Shah and Modi. It was out of threat that Advani was given seat on the podium denying the home minister Rajnath Singh his place on the dais. But even there he was shown his place. When he reached the dais, he was about to sit on the chair next to the prime minister but Modi told him that his chair was the next one and he should sit there. Advani sat silent all through. However he who founded the BJP was conspicuous by his absence at the party’s foundation day. The buzz is that he boycotted the foundation day celebrations because he was invited through an SMS and his family members took strong exception. Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj the next in line after the PM as per the protocol were made to sit below as the prime minister sat on the dais with Amit Shah, Advani and Arun Jaitley.
Smriti Irani faces uncertain future in BJP
Smriti Irani the former TV actress turned politician, was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal choice for HRD portfolio, but has suddenly fallen from grace. After she was dropped from the national executive of the BJP, she is likely to be dropped from the union cabinet also. This view gained momentum after what she did in Goa. She stole the media headlines putting a shadow on the national executive deliberations. Earlier the BJP brass was toying with the idea of shifting her to a less glamorous portfolio but pressure has now mounted on Modi that she should be dropped. The thinking in the party is that she deliberately enacted the Goa drama to divert attention from the party’s national executive from where she was dropped. The anti-Smriti chorus has reached such a high that it was evident from the tweet of her party colleague Meenakshi Lekhi that the Goa episode was to divert attention from the NE meeting. Women jealousy apart, Meenakshi’s tweet has found resonance among hundreds of party leaders
Many senior journalists in the race for Tribune Editor’s post
As the Tribune editor Raj Chengappa moves over to India today group, the race for his successor has begun. All the unemployed editors or retired seniors or number two, are in the long queue. Among the names making rounds the prominent names are of Bharat Bhushan, Sidharth Vardhrajan, Manoj Joshi, Amit Barua, Harish Gupta and Shekhar Iyer.
Raman Singh under scanner for links with big scam
The most affable of the BJP’s chief ministers Raman Singh, now famous as chawal baba, is under the scanner. The Jain Hawala type case has come to haunt the Chattisgarh CM this time as the anti corruption bureau while probing the supply of rice for the PDS in the state, has come across a list of names of certain alleged beneficiaries including the name of the cm’s wife, his sister in law, the food minister and the chief secretary plus a whole lot of IAS officers.. The ACB has recovered a five page document from the office of Girish Sharma, personal assistant to the state civil supplies manging director Anil Tuteja. An entry in one of Sharma’s sheets is dated December 5 2014 that mentions a 3 lakh transaction, another entry dated November 24 mentions Rs 2500. There is also an undated entry of Rs three lakhs for Aishwarya residency in Raipur where CM’s sister in law lives. Last month, the ACB recovered Rs 3.64 crores from the offices of civil supplies corporation and Rs 20 lakhs were seized from the office of Girish Sharma. The ACB report mentioned it as a big money making racket. (IPA)