Dual engine
The phenomenal performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections in Maharashtra is also being seen as the success of the Union ministers, Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw. The duo was tasked with the difficult job of turning around the reverses in the Lok Sabha polls in the western state. They are being dubbed as a lucky pair as they also won Madhya Pradesh late last year where they beat anti-incumbency after several terms in power. Vaishnaw, an electronics engineer-turned-civil servant-turned-politician, is known for closely examining voting numbers and implementing corrective measures while Yadav used his social engineering skills to win over different caste groups. Even though they handle important Central ministries, they had virtually parked themselves in Maharashtra for over a month. For the current dispensation, elections clearly get precedence over governance. Their success has also highlighted the failure of another high-profile combo — Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Himanta Biswa Sarma, who were in charge of the elections in Jharkhand, where the BJP lost badly.
Coded message
The chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, and the leader of the Opposition in the state, Tejashwi Yadav, had an interesting exchange when proceedings of the legislative assembly were in full swing. Kumar gestured to Yadav, who laughed and replied with hand gestures. The cryptic exchange continued for some time and ended with both the leaders sporting broad smiles. The House watched them dumbfounded. Unable to break the coded signals, some thought it was a normal chit-chat between uncle and nephew, while others said something was cooking ahead of the assembly elections. Yadav added to the confusion by saying, “Those who were capable of understanding, understood everything.” Sources said that Kumar asked Yadav if everything was okay while the latter praised the CM’s jacket. Whatever be the case, they have left the grapevine buzzing.
Divine help
After losing from all four assembly seats in the recent bypolls, the Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Lalu Prasad, and his younger son, Tejashwi Yadav, who handles party affairs, thought it wise to propitiate the divine forces. A day after the results, they took a chartered flight to Datia in Madhya Pradesh, famous for the Pitambara Peeth temple dedicated to Baglamukhi and Vankhandeshwar Mahadev. Prasad had to use a wheelchair within the temple and the two leaders stayed there for around an hour and offered special prayers. The temple is famous among politicians across party lines. There is a belief that those who pray there win in the elections. Several presidents, prime ministers, Union ministers, chief ministers and other leaders have visited the place. Father and son allegedly prayed for power to serve the people after the 2025 assembly elections in Bihar.
Hit wicket
The Congress members of Parliament from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi and Rakibul Hussain, were the toast of the party after their stunning win in the Lok Sabha polls in June but find themselves on a sticky wicket after candidates backed by them lost the assembly bypolls in Behali and Samaguri, respectively. The Congress’s allies in the Opposition have openly criticised Gogoi for the loss and the collapse of Opposition unity. A section of Congress leaders also blamed Gogoi and Hussain for making the bypolls “about themselves and their clout”. Most in the state Congress attribute the losses to experimentation when the focus should have been on cashing in on the momentum of the Lok Sabha results. Congress lost all the five seats, even the one it had been winning since 2001. It is time for the central leadership to read the riot act.
Seat of power
The PM set a unique record when he addressed a conference of director-generals of police and inspector-generals of police at the State Convention Centre of the Lok Seva Bhawan in Odisha. Narendra Modi became the second PM after Indira Gandhi to enter the portals of the secretariat, the seat of state administration, and attend a meeting. Many wonder why the Lok Seva Bhavan was chosen as the venue for the conference, which could have been organised at any other place, including the Raj Bhavan. But officials maintained that the convention centre, built under Naveen Patnaik, is the safest place from a security point of view. Speculation is rife that the CM, Mohan Charan Majhi, decided to hold the conference in the Lok Seva Bhawan as he wanted the PM to set foot on premises symbolising state power.
Party hopping
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala got a jolt when the Alappuzha district panchayat member, Bipin C Babu, joined the saffron camp. The grapevine has it that top BJP leaders in the state have held preliminary level talks with their Congress counterparts in protest against rampant factionalism.
