Two interesting trends can be seen in some of the recent surveys conducted in the four States going for Assembly elections this winter. First, voters are not in favour of the party but are supporting its leader; second, voters are opposed to the MlAs but have any no complaint against the Chief Minister or the probable Chief Minister.
According to a survey, a large number of voters have said that they like Jyotiraditya Scindia but they don’t prefer the Congress. likewise, one of the surveys in Delhi says that voters appreciate Narendra Modi but won’t vote for the BJP. So, there are many voters who will vote for Modi in the lok Sabha elections but are thinking of supporting Arvind Kejariwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in the Assembly polls.
In Chhattisgarh, there are a large number of voters who like Ajit Jogi but don’t prefer the Congress. In the same manner, people in Madhya Pradesh are mostly in favour of Shivraj Singh Chauhan but they have complaints against many BJP MlAs. In Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot is acceptable among voters, but his MlAs have become untouchables.
The Coalgate drama
The CBI officials investigating the allotment of coal blocks are amazed to see how almost a decade-old letters related to the Coal Ministry are being leaked to the media. As soon as CBI lodged an FIR against Hindalco chief KM Birla and former Coal Secretary PC Parekh, many letters were leaked to prove that Parekh was an honest officer.
There’s no doubt that the 25th screening committee had decided not to give coal blocks to Hindalco and this decision was changed in the 27th screening committee. Parekh did not mention any reason for the change in the file-noting. He did not even mention about the PMO letter to the members of the screening committee.
This is immaterial whether Parekh acted in the wake of the Prime Minister’s letter, but the fact remains that a private company was preferred over a public sector unit; it’s also true that this private company had already got a coal block at the same place and which was yet to start its mining work. It was on this basis that it was earlier decided not to give any coal block to Hindalco.
To derail this investigation, many letters have been leaked to the media in which Parekh has pointed fingers on Dasari Narayan Rao and Shibu Soren, but the fact is these letters have nothing to do with the Hindalco case.
Another jolt for Nitish
Former Home Secretary RK Singh, who has retired four months ago, is likely to join the BJP. Since the serial blasts in Patna, Singh has been quite vocal against the Nitish Kumar Government. He has raised several questions over the security arrangement for Narendra Modi’s rally in Patna.
No very long ago, Singh was one of the favourite officers of Nitish Kumar. When he was Road Secretary, Bihar witnessed a road revolution. later, he became Home Secretary at the Centre and even then he maintained good relations with Kumar. Though he didn’t get any posting from the Centre after his retirement, Kumar made him the infrastructure advisor. It seems Singh didn’t like the role of being a mere advisor!
It is said that Singh is in talks with some of the senior BJP leaders and may fight the Supaul lok Sabha seat in Bihar from the BJP ticket. The JD(U) is likely to field former IPS officer NK Singh, a long-time associate of Nitish Kumar, for the same seat.
Why Mulayam is worried
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is fed up with infighting within the party. Not very long ago, two senior party leaders, Azam Khan and Ahmed Hasan, openly fight each other. Both of them have publicly criticised the working style of each others’ ministry. later, Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav had to intervene to bring the situation under control.
Now, two other party leaders — Naresh Agrawal and Rajendra Chaudhary — have started fighting each other. Recently, Agrawal was in news for his derogatory remarks on Narendra Modi. After the controversy, Chaudhary said that Agrawal was not authorised to make any comment on behalf of the party. He reiterated that only he and national spokesperson Ramgopal Yadav were authorised to make such comments. On this, Agrawal hit back and said that Chaudhary must not tell him what he should speak.
Rahul in appeasement mode
Is Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi following the footsteps of his fatherIJ Is he, just like Rajiv Gandhi, in search of his Shah Bano momentIJ Nowadays it is being debated in the Congress and the BJP that Rahul is busy appeasing both Hindus and Muslims. After all, on the one hand the communal violence Bill is being drafted, and on the other Rahul is linking the ISI with the Muslim youth of Muzaffarnagar. likewise, in a Rajasthan rally, he talked about his grandmother’s assassination and his anger thereafter, but didn’t say a word about the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom.
Politics and judiciary
It’s a unique situation: While most political leaders complain of the growing judicial activism in the country, they themselves approach the judiciary for political remedies! Though the judiciary analyses the Government’s policies according to the procedure laid down in the Constitution, it is interesting to note that the political leaders are taking such matters to the court which don’t have anything to do with legal processes. Well-known advocate Ram Jethmalani has approached the court on the issue of his expulsion from the BJP, ignoring the fact that it is the party’s prerogative to retain or expel a member. The BJP parliamentary board has expelled Jethmalani for being ‘undisciplined’. The advocate has not only challenged the party decision, but also demanded Rs 50 lakh as compensation.
likewise, YSR Congress Party leader Jaganmohan Reddy has appealed the court against the lok Sabha Speaker’s decision not to accept his resignation. Reddy and two party MPs have moved the court in this regard. Earlier, a Congress MP too had moved the Delhi High Court on a similar issue. This must be noted that the Speaker has returned the resignation of these MPs on technical grounds.