Collateral damage

It seems that the revelations about the luxurious renovation of the official residence of the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader, Arvind Kejriwal, have struck a raw nerve in the party. AAP activists have been getting into scuffles with reporters of the news channel that broke the story. The relations between the AAP and the press hit a new low on Friday with the arrest of Bhawana Kishore, a Times Now journalist, and two others over a traffic incident in Ludhiana. Police in the AAP-ruled state claimed that Kishore and the other two fought with a woman who was injured during a collision with their vehicle and that the trio used casteist slurs against her. Unsurprisingly, the channel claims that Kishore has been framed for her exposé of Kejriwal. This comes at a time when the AAP has been crying foul over the arrest of two of its senior leaders in Delhi on corruption charges, which the party says were instances of the Bharatiya Janata Party using Central agencies against Opposition leaders for political vendetta. Interestingly, a BJP spokesperson tweeted a meme of Kejriwal’s face superimposed on Adolf Hitler’s with the caption: “Heil Kejriwal!”

Tables turned

The digital space has mostly been dominated by the BJP ever since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. So much so that the Opposition could rarely match the saffron ecosystem in the virtual space. But Karnataka is proving to be an exception. The Congress’s aggressive social media campaign in the poll-bound state has clearly put the BJP on the back foot. Significantly, the BJP managers realised this only after a news anchor from Delhi tweeted wondering why the party was relatively quiet.

With days left for polling, Amit Malviya, the BJP’s IT cell chief, has been belatedly going all guns blazing, using the campaign by the prime minister to build momentum. While most credible surveys have shown the Congress surging ahead, Malviya has been picking opinion polls projecting the opposite to build a pro-BJP narrative. Many in the party see this as a sign of desperation.

Heir apparent

The Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar, has been taking along his deputy and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Tejashwi Yadav, everywhere he goes. This has led to the buzz about an imminent change of guard. Nitish recently took Tejashwi with him to Delhi and other states to meet prominent Opposition leaders to discuss a united front for the 2024 polls. Further, the RJD scion has also been seen with him on all important occasions. A distinct bonhomie has been growing between the two.

While some spokespersons of the Janata Dal (United) hold that Tejashwi accompanies Nitish by dint of being an ally, others are unconvinced. “Can’t you see the writing on the wall?... Nitish is projecting Tejashwi as his heir,” a politician said. Another pointed out that the presence of the RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, in Patna, is perhaps an indication that he is here to oversee the anointing of his younger son as the CM, while Nitish crisscrosses the country to unite Opposition parties.

Bottled up

Bihar and prohibition go hand in hand. The pet idea of the CM, Nitish Kumar, was implemented in April 2016. While the success of the initiative remains debatable, the main question is whether Nitish, who is sort of the de facto convenor of Opposition unity at the moment, will propose to implement it all over the country. After all, he has spent the last seven years defending the policy despite vehement criticism. “The leaders of parties in other states will just run away after hearing the ‘prohibition’ word. They are not fools to compromise their state’s revenue...,” a political leader said. Another asserted that the liquor ban not only failed to fetch votes but has also started resulting in the loss of assembly seats in the bypolls.

Cheeky remark

The veteran Congress leader and former CM, Veerappa Moily, is known for his eloquence. With the BJP riding on the ‘double engine sarkar ’ slogan, Moily used it to articulate why the upcoming state polls would stall both engines. He said that while one engine would be sent to the scrap yard next week, the other would be trashed in 2024. Like twin-engine motor vehicles, the ‘double engine sarkar’ needs each other to function in harmony.

Future ready

The three-storied new office of the Biju Janata Dal — it reportedly costs crores — has raised eyebrows. Known as Sankha Bhaban, the new office has a huge parking space, a conference hall, a cafeteria and other modern amenities. The question being asked is whether the party, which solely depends on the charisma of its chief, Naveen Patnaik, requires a bhaban after all these years. It shows that the BJD is gearing up for a future without Naveen.

Footnote

Election time in non-Hindi states is when BJP leaders wax eloquent about state languages. This time, it’s Kannada. Amit Shah, the champion of Hindi promotion, came to Karnataka and declared that his party’s government treated all languages equally. At this, the Congress general secretary, Jairam Ramesh, questioned why the Modi government spent Rs 640 crore to promote Sanskrit and just Rs 3 crore to promote Kannada. The BJP would rather not answer such a question, especially until the election is over.