Top job

A storm is brewing in the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar over who will be its chief ministerial candidate. Although the assembly elections are more than two years away, the recently-appointed state unit chief, Samrat Choudhary, has been travelling all over for party-related activities and continuously taking on the ruling Grand Alliance. This has unsettled several of his colleagues. Matters came to a head when the Union rural development minister, Giriraj Singh, himself a claimant for the top job in Bihar, informally announced Choudhary to be the party’s CM candidate at a function. While the saffron brigade was discussing whether Singh’s remarks were well-meaning or intended to sow dissension, the leader of the Opposition in the state legislative assembly, Vijay Sinha, jumped in by saying that only people with an RSS background should be the CM candidate. His statement insinuated that Choudhary would get excluded because he has no RSS links. The matter did not end there. The minister of state for home affairs, Nityanand Rai, has also become active in Bihar after lying low for several months. A veteran BJP leader with deep RSS links rued the developments and said: “How do you expect these leaders to take on Nitish Kumar and his allies when they are preparing to fight among themselves?”

Speed matters

The Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik, has, once again, outsmarted the BJP, which was trying to take all the credit for reaching out to the Balasore train tragedy victims at the time of crisis. Patnaik not only reached the accident spot before the prime minister, Narendra Modi, but also ensured that all the patients were transferred to state-owned hospitals and got the best of treatment. The state administration reached there before anyone else and started the rescue operation. A green channel was also created for ambulances for bringing the victims from Balasore to Bhubaneswar. The administration also ensured that everything was recorded and posted on social media, giving little chance to the BJP to take all the credit.

Loose cannon

A special MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh sentenced the muscleman-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, to life imprisonment in a murder case. He used to be a regular visitor to Patna in the 1990s and would stay at the official residences of some ministers and MLAs. “It was during one such visit that Ansari snatched an Ambassador car belonging to a well-known Rashtriya Janata Dal leader who later became a minister. This happened in broad daylight on a road close to the VIP area of the state capital. This was done because he and his associates needed it to roam around in the city,” said a former RJD minister. “Deprived of his vehicle, the leader came running to me because Ansari used to stay at my residence during his Patna visits. I found out where he was and telephoned him, asking him to return it. He did so and the car went back to its rightful owner. But the incident also made us realise that he was reckless and wild, and we could end up having eggs on our faces due to him. We slowly distanced ourselves from him, while he went on to become more powerful and got elected as an MLA five times,” the former minister added.

Sweetest tongue

Ever since its Bharatiya Jana Sangh days, the BJP has been known as a ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan’ outfit. The Union home minister, Amit Shah, epitomises this excessive emphasis on Hindi. Insiders claim that Shah insists that even ministers hailing from the south should be able to speak in Hindi. This is evident when one sees the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, replying in Hindi inside Parliament. She can be seen struggling but not giving up.

On completing nine years in power, ministers of the Modi government are taking turns to address the media at the BJP headquarters. Here too, the stress on Hindi is obvious. The diplomat-turned-foreign minister, S Jaishankar, is taking to the line from the top quite seriously. He has been heard speaking in Hindi often recently and, compared to most others, he is seen doing a stellar job. But then he is a Lutyens’ product.

Chasing records

The BJP-led Assam government is angling at another record this Gandhi Jayanti. To boost its green cover as well as tree-based economy, it has decided to plant one crore saplings within two hours on October 2. To ensure the success of the green drive, it has decided to pay 100 rupees to those who plant a sapling and another Rs 200 three years later if the sapling survives. The Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said that the move is aimed at creating a forest-centric economy by encouraging people to plant and nurture trees such as sal and teak which have commercial value. “In the process if any record is broken, it is welcome,” he said. Assam has already entered the Guinness World Records thrice this year. An insider said the state will pull out all stops to do so again.

Footnote

The five guarantees given by the Karnataka Congress received much flak from the BJP. When the Congress silenced the doubters by announcing the implementation of the guarantees, critics continued their tirade, questioning the practicality of the projects. But the BJP national general-secretary, CT Ravi, who lost in the recent elections, has admitted that the guarantees helped the Congress ride to power. One of its most strident critics, Ravi’s admission could be the best reward for the Congress.