By Nora Chopra
SONIA REBUFFS KULDEEP BISHNOI”S PLEA TO MAKE HIM LEADER IN HARYANA
After Bhajanlal’s death, his son former MP Kuldeep Bhishnoi has been in political wilderness. His party Haryana Janhit Congress has been doing bad consistently and with Kuldeep losing his own election, his political future seems to be at a standstill. Last week he met the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and boasted to her that if he is made the leader of the Congress in Haryana, the fortunes would be revived over night and the spillover effect would be felt in Delhi and Rajasthan. Sonia tersely replied t that over the years he had proved himself to be somebody who cannot be trusted as he had once been. She told him that had he stuck on in the party, he would have certainly emerged at the top sooner or later but with his constant bargaining and flip flopping, it very difficult for her to even suggest such a move to her partymen. Kuldeep left demoralised.
AHMAD PATEL RENDERS HELP TO A PATIENT UNDER DISTRESS
What is the difference between the self-proclaimed socialist Lohiaite Sharad Yadav and the so called capitalist Ahmad Patel. Well one day this week the father of an employee in a TV channel was lying on the death bed in RML hospital. He was in a precarious condition. A fellow journalist called up first Sharad Yadav seeking his help and intervention. He just had to pick up his phone and tell the doctors to shift the patient also a fellow Yadav who had suffered a massive brain stroke to the ICU. The family members did not have the money to take him to a private hospital, but the socialist leader’s response was cold. He said achcha dekh lenge. On the other hand the same journalist who was being pressurised because the condition of the patient was deteriorating, rang up Ahmad Patel of the Congress. He did not pick up the phone as usual. But the journalist sent him a message seeking his help for the dying patient. Within five minutes the said journo got a confirmation reply saying he had got the message. After half an hour, he sent another message saying he had done the needful and a senior doctor had visited the patient.
JAIRAM RAMESH STRUGGLING FOR RENOMINATION TO RAJYA SABHA
Former union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s term in Rajya Sabha is coming to an end in July 2016. He is a worried man because the Congress is struggling to find a seat for him. The only possibility is Karnataka where the Congress is in power but a large section of the party is dead against Ramesh’s nomination from Karnataka. They have already conveyed to the high command that Ramesh has represented Andhra Pradesh and he can’t just be accommodated from Karnataka for nomination to Rajya Sabha this year.
CONGRESS HOPEFUL OF FORMING GOVERNMENT IN ASSAM
Assam elections are over and the guessing game has begun. Who would form the government the BJP or the congress or will it be a hung assembly. This is the first time that the BJP is contesting seriously in Assam and is hoping to get a majority. But reports suggest that Amit Shah has again floundered and repeated the Bihar blunder. He had said that if BJP comes to power, it will ensure that Bangladeshis will have to vacate Assam. Shah had said before the first phase of poling that the party will drive out all the intruders. The result was that the first phase of polling was polarised in favour of the BJP. However before the second phase of polling, a statement made by Hemanta Biswa Sarma who recently shifted from Congress to BJP, saying that at least 50% of the migrants in Assam will have to go back impacted the BJP adversely as this phase was in Muslim dominated areas. In reaction to the polling in the first phase, the Muslims are said to have voted en masse for the Congress. In this phase the polling percentage shot up to a whopping 88 percent. Its being said that Badruddin Ajmal has lost out to the Congress. Congress is now sure of forming a government.
RAHUL GANDHI AND SMRITI IRANI ARE STILL IN COMPETITION
Rahul Gandhi may have beaten Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha polls. But the battle between the Congress vice-president and the union human resource development minister is far from over. The news is that a 13-year-old boy, Kaushal Shakya, who sold newspapers to make ends meet, has benefited from the war between Rahul and Smriti. In April 2013, Kaushal had a chance encounter with Rahul at a traffic signal in Bhopal. Rahul, dressed in kurta and jeans, was not interested in buying the Hindi daily that had splashed photographs, quotes, blurbs and headlines about him. Instead, he wanted to know more about Kaushal’s life. “Akhbar kyon bechte ho? School kyun nahi jaate? (Why are you selling newspapers? Why don’t you go to school?)”, asked Rahul. Kaushal had replied that he goes to a government school, but sells newspapers in his spare time to help his family of five. He added that he wanted to become a doctor, and that his farm-labourer father did not get work on all days. “Akhbar le lijiye. Aap ki khabar hai (Please buy a newspaper, you are in the news),” he insisted. The next day, Kantilal Bhuria was sent with an offer to fund Kaushal’s education. But in 2014, Bhuria got shunted out and the new state chief, Arun Yadav, claimed that he had no clue about the commitment that had been made to Kaushal, who had been forced to stop his school education. The stage was now set for Irani’s intervention. When the Union HRD minister came to know of Kaushal’s plight, she swung into action and directed a Kendriya Vidyalaya to admit him and bear the expenses of his education. Rahul, understandably, is upset with Irani winning the honours in this round. Nervous Congressmen in Madhya Pradesh are preparing to offer explanations to their boss. But Kaushal, surely, is not complaining.
NAJMA HEPTULLAH EYEING FOR VICE PRESIDENT’S POSITION
Many senior politicians would be happy to accept a gubernatorial position. But Najma Heptullah is not among them. There are whispers that Heptullah is quietly resisting moves to send her to Raj Bhavan. She is apparently using informal channels to plead her case. Heptullah, reportedly, wants to spend one more year as a minister. There is a specific reason behind Heptullah’s request. Vice-presidential elections are slotted for next year. Given the current electoral college strength of the National Democratic Alliance, Najma is hopeful of bidding for vice-president position. Sources close to Heptullah are of the opinion that her status as a senior minister would help her exercise greater clout in the impending bargains than as a governor. (IPA)