Veteran leader Sharad Pawar is facing an unprecedented embarrassing situation in his 57-year long political innings. Never having lost a single election, Pawar was tacitly acknowledged across Maharashtra’s political spectrum as the controlling pivot in deciding which candidate will win which election, till a decade ago. Unfortunately for him, the end of his Rajya Sabha term on 2 April is enveloped into suspense about his returning to Parliament. The present party statistics in Maharashtra assembly makes it clear that the combined Opposition, the so-called INDIA Bloc, can elect just one candidate to the Rajya Sabha, only if there is no cross-voting. Once upon a time, Pawar was the master of such manipulations. But now, he will have to depend upon the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray and the Congress party to secure the required 38 votes in the 288-member lower house. The wish has been questioned following Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Varun Sardesai’s unambiguous assertion that his party will not give up its claim for the seat, Pawar or no Pawar in the ring. Varun is extremely close to Uddhav and his son Aaditya Thackeray. Hence his rigid stand has sent warning signals in the INDIA camp as the Congress party, too, has been unable to declare its support of Pawar. Against this backdrop, Aaditya’s absence from two successive INDIA meetings to discuss the issue is considered vocal enough. All in all, Pawar is made an unwilling player in the power struggle.

The untimely death of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in an aeroplane crash last month has raised several serious questions but the reticence of his wife, new deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, has also become a matter of curiosity. On the one hand, her nephew and NCP(SP) MLA Rohit Pawar has been holding a press conference daily to share his doubts about the mishap or crashing into police stations in an unsuccessful bid to register a FIR about the tragedy. On the other hand, leaders like Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray have jumped into the raging controversy, demanding answers to their questions. The matter has attained another level of gravity since Rohit has called on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to request a thorough probe. He said the CM will hopefully urge Union home minister Amit Shah to investigate the matter. Despite such momentous developments, no family members of Sunetra have said a word, either about the loss of the patriarch. The intensity with which Rohit has been issuing warnings to top leaders of the NCP(Ajit) about the respect they should show towards his aunt has also surprised many. It is felt that Rohit’s targets are topmost NCP(Ajit) leaders, Praful Patel and Sunit Tatkare, both confidants of the deceased leader. They are running the party presently. However, there is also speculation over the fact that neither the Congress nor the Sena (UBT) have pursued the stand taken by Rohit, who has threatened another sensational disclosure soon.

In an somewhat unexpected twist in Tamil Nadu politics,  O Panneerselvam or OPS as he is popularly known, the three-time AIADMK chief minister who was chosen by the late J Jayalalithaa twice to stand in  for her when she had to quit the top post due to corruption cases, joined the ruling DMK in the presence chief minister M K Stalin. Panneerselvam’s (75) decision to join the DMK comes after much dithering. He had been trying to persuade the DMK leadership in his two rounds of meeting with the DMK brass to enter into a seat-sharing alliance with him. He was seeking help to remain afloat as a separate political entity. It is only when CM Stalin made it clear that OPS and his supporters didn’t have much choice but only to join the DMK, that the AIADMK leader zeroed in on the last-ditch option. Political analysts in Chennai say OPS ran out of luck when his efforts to rejoin the AIADMK with the help of the BJP failed. The AIADMK under Edappadi K Palaniswami gave its go-ahead to induct OPS into the NDA but refused to re-induct him into the party. Thereafter, it is being said OPS had even turned to actor Vijay, the TVK chief and sought an electoral alliance with him. “It is only when Vijay refused to have a tie-up with OPS, that he chose to walk into the DMK. The ruling party which has been a long-time rival, is going to be a death knell for him. He will become irrelevant there,” said a Congress leader. The political impact of OPS joining the DMK will be limited as his influence will be confined to his home turf of Theni and support of his Thevar community.

With the renaming of Kerala to Keralam, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has turned the issue into a significant political flashpoint ahead of the state election due in a couple of months. Didi termed the BJP “anti-Bengal” and accused the CPI(M) of maintaining a tacit understanding with the saffron party. She alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah remember West Bengal only during election season, while consistently blocking the state’s longstanding demand for a name change. The issue dates back to 1999 when the Left Front government led by chief minister Jyoti Basu first proposed renaming the state “Paschim Bangla”. After coming to power in 2011, Mamata revived the effort. In 2016, her government suggested “Bengal” in English, “Bangla” in Bengali, and “Bangal” in Hindi, but the Centre rejected the proposal, citing the use of three different names. A later suggestion to adopt “Bangla” as the sole name was also turned down, reportedly because it sounded similar to Bangladesh, potentially causing confusion in international forums. The controversy has put both the BJP and the CPI(M) on the defensive. The state CPI(M) leaders have reacted cautiously as prominent CPI(M) leader Pratik Ur Rahaman defected to the TMC. Local BJP leaders have dismissed Mamata’s claims as politically motivated, accusing her of sidelining the legacy of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and using the issue to polarise voters as campaigning gathers pace..

Theatre and film actress Ritika Shrotri is set to perform at the inaugural Mumbai Fringe Festival, part of the global Fringe movement that includes the prestigious Prague Fringe. The Mumbai edition runs from March 12-15, bringing the world’s largest arts movement to India for the first time. Shrotri, known for her work in Marathi and Hindi cinema, has been invited to showcase her acclaimed solo production, The Light Catcher, a 50-minute one-woman play previously seen at the Edinburgh Fringe and Camden Fringe in the UK, where she embodied 10 distinct characters. The English-language performance follows a photographer’s emotional journey in search of her “favourite” photograph — only to find meaning in the most unexpected moment of life — bringing to life a cast of characters from India, the UK, Venezuela, North Korea and Ethiopia. Audiences and critics have lauded the show as a visually and culturally rich theatrical experience. Shrotri has been a prominent figure in the Marathi film industry for over 15 years, with notable roles in films including Bucket List (as Madhuri Dixit’s daughter), Boyz, Mukkam Post Bombilwadi , London Misal and lstest Wada Paav. She has also appeared in Netflix originals such as Raid 2 and Meenakshi Sundareshwar. Written by AI scientist Niranjan Pedanekar, The Light Catcher draws inspiration from Kevin Carter’s haunting photograph of a Sudanese child — an image that sparked global conversation on art and ethics. The play has earned accolades including Best Play at the Red Curtain International Festival and a Best Actress award for Shrotri, following more than 30 sold-out shows across India’s leading venues.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the first meeting of the Union Cabinet at the new Prime Minister’s Office in ‘Seva Teerth’ on February 24, marking a break from decades of operating out of PMO in the iconic South Block of the colonial era. As the ministers committed themselves to serve the citizens with the motto “Nagarik Devo Bhava” (citizen is God), the Cabinet also adopted a resolution saying that “every decision taken here will be inspired by a spirit of service toward 1.4 billion citizens and will be connected to the broader goal of nation-building.” PM Modi also asked his ministers to come up with some positive or good news about their ministries in every Cabinet meeting. Strangely, this directive from the top did not befuddle the Modi ministers. None of them even seemed worked up. In fact, most senior ministers were quick to ratchet up claims of some positive performance in their ministry. Everyone from Nitin Gadkari to Ashwini Vaishnaw   were found throwing up enthusiastic details that almost stunned Modi. It almost made some Cabinet ministers recall what happened in August last year when Modi had first floated the idea of good news about governance. Everyone was tense and the solemn air was broken only by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjrapu, who announced the birth of his son – this was greeted with loud cheering and congratulations. In this backdrop, clearly, none of the senior leaders in the Modi Govt will be in a position to pass off some personal achievement as part of the official track record! They will have to work hard.

Even as 90% of Tamil Nadu party outfits have been issued boarding passes for the Election flight “Now Boarding” with the two major blocks, the GOP’s Rahul Gandhi and his entourage is still vacillating over his choice of alliance. The Congress has remained a DMK loyalist for years…from the days of Kalaignar when it needed just a look from Sonia Gandhi for the patriarch to assent. In all fairness Rahul is not responsible for the angry muddle that nearly broke the alliance. TN Congress is a vacuous and vainglorious block that abounds in loose cannon who stir up controversies. Manickam Tagore and Praveen Chakravarty are two such voluble members who insisted that Congress should share in power too…not just seats. This was enough to make the DMK fume and froth. Congress had to deploy two emissaries K C Venugopal and Girish Chodankar  to cool the  heat. An enraged Stalin is said to have given an ultimatum “we have new allies on board and are already juggling seat sharing, going as far as cutting our own quota …we need to allocate for the other new and existing allies too.” At a juncture where every party wants to squeeze the maximum from the deal, does this dithering have a reason, a fallback?  It’s natural to conjecture about actor Vijay’s TVK waiting with open arms to welcome a hardline Congress. But the know all’s say …Vijay is very well aware of the pitfalls of a Congress ‘dosti’. Karur stampede and delayed Jana Nayagan are constant reminders to Vijay to stay in line. Rahul and Kharge are in a huddle mode — to capitulate or challenge?

When a city like Chennai is already having its own issues with traffic and travel, a Chennai-based startup called The ePlane Company is working on India’s first electric air taxi, which can take off and land like a helicopter. The plan for this air taxi is called e200x. As fascinating as it sounds, will it be feasible in terms of money, electricity and battery limits? Half of the roads in Chennai are already occupied with barricades, saying “inconvenience today for a better tomorrow” where parking space for this e taxi will be allocated, considering Chennai’s limited parking space. Even though it might help to overcome traffic and everything, how many individuals can really afford to go in an air taxi that replicates a helicopter?  The company is building a computer model as of now. What about the after-math effects of building a real one? What will happen if the battery drains down in the middle of the ride? Will Harry Potter come with his Nimbus 2000 (a magic broomstick) to rescue people and to drop at their locations? And Charging stations? Fares to ride in these helicopter replicas? It’s a lot to unpack. As futuristic as it sounds, practicality is what will decide the outcome of this idea.

The BJP’s much-publicised Parivartan Yatra in West Bengal will be flagged off on March 1 by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah from Raidighi in South Bengal, a stronghold of the ruling TMC. The two-day mobilisation –March 1—2 — will span nine of the BJP’s 10 organisational divisions in the state. The Kolkata Metropolitan division has been excluded, as it is tasked with organising the party’s concluding Brigade rally. The decision to have Shah launch the yatra from Raidighi is politically significant. The area falls within South 24 Parganas, a district that has stood firmly behind TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee since 2008 — even before she came to power in 2011. In the 2008 panchayat polls, the TMC wrested the South 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad from the Left Front. In the last Assembly elections, the party won 30 of the district’s 31 seats; only Bhangar went to the ISF. Raidighi is under the Mathurapur Lok Sabha constituency, while TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee represents neighbouring Diamond Harbour in Parliament. Joining this yatra will be eight central leaders and nationally prominent BJP faces marking an unprecedented concentration of the party’s top leadership in West Bengal. The two-day event will be attended by Union ministers like Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Annapurna Devi including Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. Newly elected BJP national president Nitin Nabin will be present on both days. Five years after its high-profile “joining fairs” ahead of the 2021 polls, the BJP is avoiding mass inductions. Instead, it is banking on a concentrated show of organisational strength to signal its intent to breach what the ruling party calls its most impregnable fortress.

The Congress leadership is apparently worried about losing numbers in the biennial elections to 37 Rajya Sabha seats to be held on March 16. Its worry is that it may not be able to return as many of its MPs to the House from states like Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The party which currently has 27 Rajya Sabha is worried that any reduction in numbers could effectively cost it the office of the Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, a position currently held by Mallikarjun Kharge. Incidentally, his term is coming up for renewal in June. The anxiety to maintain LoP status has made the Congress push for an extra Rajya Sabha seat with its allies in TN or Maharashtra. In TN, of the four vacancies, the Congress is the DMK to share 2.  DMK has offered one seat to DMDK leader Premalatha’s son/kin. It is apparently willing to offer one seat to the Congress. As for the second seat it is not clear at this stage. Rahul is keen to accommodate his close aide Meenakshi Natrajan — a resident of Madhya Pradesh — from TN now. He can’t wait for Digvijay Singh’s vacancy which will happen in June. The Congress is demanding a second from Stalin for Pawan Khera. Stalin, it seems, is keen to accommodate the former The Hindu editor N Ram. It is being said that the Congress is not worried about limitations of the DMK and is very keen about reaching its target of two RS seats. In fact, AICC Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar told DMK MP Kanimozhi that his party wants more assembly seats than the previous election. TN Congressmen are wondering why is the party talking tough for RS seat? Is something else cooking?