By Nora Chopra
IS RAHUL GANDHI GETTING MARRIED SOON? The entire Allahabad as well as Delhi is abuzz with the rumour that Rahul Gandhi is getting married soon. Wedding preparations are said to be going on at his ancestral house Anand Bhawan in Allahabad. The girl is supposed to be a Kashniri Brahmin girl, said to be the daughter of a very close friend of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi. The rumour started after Sonia Gandhi visited last month accompanied by friend’s daughter and stayed at Anand Bhawan. It was presumed that Sonia Gandhi had brought her future daughter in law to show her Anand Bhawan. However as yet there is no clarity on the matter with those involved refusing to confirm or deny reports of an impending wedding. Meanwhile according to one report, the girl is said to be the daughter of a former foreign secretary, close to Gandhi family
BJP MAY PROJECT ANUPRIYA PATEL AS CM FACE IN UTTAR PRADESH Uttar Pradesh this time will be the battle ground of three women Anupriya Patel of BJP, Mayawati of BSP and of course Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress. BJP which forced a split in Anupriya Patel’s family has promised to project her as the chief ministerial candidate. Patel has inherited her father Sonelal Patel’s kurmi backward legacy. She is well educated and articulate. It is for these reasons that the BJP president Amit Shah made her first join the BJP and then promised her the CM’s seat. The BJP unlike Bihar where they depended only on the face of Narendra Modi has started to focus on caste particularly on the OBC castes as the other two UP parties that have ruled UP for the last three decades are basically OBC dalit parties. It is to counter the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s BSP that Amit Shah is focussing on the OBCs and MBCs. First, with an eye on behenji’s vote bank, Shah appointed Keshav Prasad Maurya, an MBC as their state chief. And now after much brain drill, they have decided to project Anupriya Patel as the CM candidate for 2017 assembly polls in UP.
PRIYANKA FAVOURS ALLIANCE IN UTTAR PRADESH ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS Despite Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress is not sure of sweeping the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. Ghulam Nabi Azad, the general secretary in charge, is planning an alliance on the lines of Bihar. He is negotiating with behenji for either a covert alliance with seat adjustments in over 100 seats or an overt alliance with Congress fighting just 170 seats and the rest going to BSP..Mayawati too neds the Congress in these crucial times when the BJP is out to break her party. Besides beheji, the Congress is even in talks with the jat leader Ajit Singh and even with the kurmi Apna Dal leaders opposed to BJP. Meanwhile Priyanka Gandhi is expected to be the chairman of the campaign committee and can even contest from Allahabad or Phulpur. The alliance talk has been initiated at Piyanka’s behest. The thinking in the party is that Priyanka should not be burdened with the victory pressures. If Congress goes alone in UP and fails to deliver, then Priyanka alone will have to take the credit of the victory or defeat. But in an alliance, Priyanka can pass on the buck on the alliance partner..
GHULAM NABI AZAD WILL RUN UPCC THROUGH RAJ BABBAR The new Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Raj Babbar is neither a Brahmin nor a Muslim but the charismatic film star Babbar got this lucky assignment because of the infighting amongst the Brahmin leaders. There was hectic lobbying before the high command zeroed in on Babbar. He was the choice of both Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi. Though a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand, Babbar has been acceptable to all castes as well as to Muslims because of his Muslim wife. The other choice Sanjay Singh who was offered the post of chairman campaign committee, is said to have refused to accept the post. But despite the fact that he is casteless Khatri like his predecessor Nirmal Khatri, his advantage of being Raj Babbar is that he would now be used as a poster boy of the Congress and the strings will be pulled from behind by Delhi and especially by Ghulam Nabi Azad.
MAMATA TO ATTEND INTER STATE COUNCIL MEETING FOR FIRST TIME The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has an eye on the top most post in the country of the PM, has now made tactical changes in her politics. She is these days being governed more by her brains than by her heart like the last time. After getting a two third majority in the state assembly poll, she is coming to Delhi on July 15 to attend the meeting of Inter Sate Council. This is the first time she would be attending this meeting since 2014 ever since Narendra Modi came to power.
RAHUL GANDHI WOOING SANJAY SINGH’S CHILDREN BEFORE POLLS If Priyanka Gandhi takes the lead in Uttar Pradesh assembly poll, she would like to have people of her own choice around her. Already UP Congress leaders have started lobbying to catch her eye. Sanjay Singh, the Raja of Amethi and his second wife Amita Modi are trying hard to remain in the good books of Priyanka. Singh was even hoping to become the PCC chief but with Raj Babbar taking over the position, his hopes have been dashed. Now it seems his wife Amita Modi who is a serious contender for the Congress ticket may lose the chance as Rahul Gandhi is talking to her step son. Amita Modi is not as popular as Sanjay Singh’s children who also carry sympathy with them. Rahul is not the only one talking to him but even the BJP leadership is trying to woo him.
PRASANT KISHOR GETTING LITTLE COOPERATION FROM UP LEADERS Congress campaign strategist Prashant Kishor is fast losing his grip on the organization. Top sources said that Kishor’s plug to pitch former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as the face of the party in Uttar Pradesh caught many leaders including Dikshit unaware. After Kishor took charge, his team had started calling Congress leaders and MLAs, asking them to arrive in Lucknow at short notices. While initially many leaders tried to oblige but after some time, the leaders have started to avoid his calls and pay no