West Bengal BJP has begun to feel the burden of having a former bureaucrat CV Ananda Bose in Raj Bhavan. He poses no problem for the TMC regime but remains out of bounds for them. Bengal BJP leaders find that they are never able to access him. Half the time, much harassed Bose is always catching a flight to Delhi to fill the ears of central leadership. They feel Kolkata Raj Bhavan should have a politically savvy governor like Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan or Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi who keeps local governments on toes.  Party sources feel with assembly elections in 2026, there must be an effective, political governor who will be able to keep chief minister Mamata Banerjee on her toes. Instead, they find Governor Bose is embroiled and immersed in fighting his own personal battles.  Two years after he took charge as governor, Mamata pinned him down with one of the Raj Bhavan staff alleging inappropriate conduct in May 2024. The TMC supremo who is buffeted by corruption allegations and scams, tried using allegations made by a contractual woman employee of Raj Bhavan to put the Governor on the defensive. Didi made it such a political issue  that even her two MLAs — Rayat Hossain Sarkar and Sayantika Banerjee — elected in the bypolls recently, refused to go to the Raj Bhavan to be sworn-in. They were sworn in by the Speaker at a special session of the Assembly on July 5. Bose has filed a defamation suit against Mamata after she remarked that “women are afraid to visit Raj Bhavan due to recent incidents”. Meanwhile, hunt is on for new Bengal BJP chief as Dr Sukanta Majumdar is a Union Minister now.

In an interesting move that came around the same time as the inaugural Parliament Session concluded, PM Narendra Modi constituted 8 Cabinet Committees in which the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman  was included in as many as seven of the eight cabinet Committees. While, PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah constituted the Appointments Committee, the FM was included in as many as seven. These include: Cabinet Committee(CC) on Accommodation, CC on Economic Affairs (CCEA), CC on Parliamentary Affairs, CC on Security and CC on Skill Development, Employment and Livelihood. External Affairs Minister  Dr S Jaishankar figured in CC on Economic Affairs and CC on Security.  Significantly several NDA leaders such as JD (U) leader HD Kumaraswamy figured in CCEA. So did BJP’s ally from Bihar Lallan Singh. TDP leader & Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Naidu was in CC on Parliamentary Affairs. CC on Political Affairs again had Naidu from TDP and Jitan Ram Manjhi from Bihar. Chirag Paswan was accommodated in the panel on investment and growth. In the CC on skill development INLD leader Jayant Chaudhry was included.

At least in two recent meetings, PM Narendra Modi has apparently indicated to both ministers and secretaries that they must not constantly look to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for administrative initiatives or governance ideas.  First, at a meeting with Ministers of State, he had suggested that they must come up with their own ideas of governance. And not wait for signals from the PMO. He had given similar advice during his interactive session with secretaries of the Government of India. In short, Modi has begun to de-emphasise the PMO and wants more ideas from all levels to give inputs for governance. The lack of top down control over the administration from the PMO seemed like a fresh idea. It also seemed to coincide with his idea to rebrand his PMO as “people’s PMO” at the beginning of his new term. Official sources feel Modi’s call for more ideas from all levels of governance in the third term instead of just the PMO marks a big shift in governance emphasis.  It may be also recalled that in his first interaction with officials of the PMO, Modi had not only lauded staff for their work in the past, he had also explained the concept of “people’s PMO” to the staff. Modi said that the government means new energy of strength, dedication and resolve and expressed confidence that the PMO is primed to serve the people with dedication. He highlighted that it is not Modi alone who runs the government but thousands of minds that come together and shoulder the responsibilities.

In his maiden speech in the Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on July 1 triggered an uproar in the House with his remark targeting the BJP, saying those who call themselves Hindus “only talk about violence, hatred and lies. Those who claim to be Hindu only talk about violence, hatred, and untruth… You are not a Hindu.” His sweeping remarks against Hindus earned quick response from PM Modi, interrupting Rahul’s speech. Modi, who extended the courtesy of listening to LoP’s speech and sat through his nearly 2-hour speech in the House, objected to him painting the entire Hindu community as “violent” as a serious matter. After the exchange, Union home minister Amit Shah demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi. It was interesting to see that the LoP’s remarks were promptly countered by top ministers from the Modi Government — like Rs 1 crore that is paid to Agniveer martyrs by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while Rahul’s remarks about MSP for farmers were dealt with by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. In a tweet, UP chief minister Yogi too sought apology from Rahul for his remarks against Hindus.  Meanwhile as Rahul’s speech went awry the one person who rushed to his defence was his sister Priyanka. She insisted that her brother only spoke against the BJP and would never speak against the Hindus. Rahul who kept personally attacking the PM for always being serious, even mockingly said the PM had said (Mahatma) Gandhi was revived by a movie. In his speech, Rahul talked about his 55-hour interrogation by the ED and how leaders “are” still kept in jail on the order of the PM.

For all the confrontation between the Congress and the Government over NEET and resolution over Emergency in the opening session of the 18th Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is apparently quite happy with the large office that has been allotted in the Parliament House to him in keeping with his new status as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Entitled to maintain a small core team, Rahul is keen to maintain a social media team drawn mainly from the AICC. For the initial day-to-day work, Rahul has made it known that he wants to share the experienced team assisting Mallikarjun Kharge, the Rajya Sabha LoP. Such as Kharge’s secretary Ravindra Garimella. Party sources said Rahul has already indicated that he may not be interested in routine meetings like business advisory committee meetings that fix the agenda  for Lok Sabha sittings and may be only too happy to delegate it to senior colleagues like KC Venugopal or Gaurav Gogoi. He was apparently making inquiries about panels where PM Modi would be present. As such, it is not that PM Modi will be present in any of the parliamentary panels. But then as Lok Sabha LoP, Rahul would also get to preside over the Public Accounts Committee– a panel that reviews functionings of the PSUs. The PAC is a prized panel where PSU chiefs would be keen to please the PAC chief. For his new role as LoP, Rahul was initially seen wearing a kurta that most netas tend to wear. However by Friday a clean shaven Rahul  decided to shed the old world image and  was back to  sporting his favourite gear– white T-shirt and jeans —  something he was identified with during his Bharat Jodo Yatra days.

Om Birla, the NDA nominee, was elected as the Lok Sabha Speaker on June 26, through a motion moved by PM Narendra Modi, which was adopted via voice votes. The only redeeming feature of the election that happened after 50 years in the Parliament was that there was no counting of votes. Election was by voice vote –by ‘Ayes’ and ‘Noes’. In fact after pro-tem speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab declared Om Birla as the Speaker of the lower house, JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan even wondered why there was no headcount or division. Mahtab told him that “it was beyond division of votes”. The Opposition, which had filed K Suresh as the Speaker candidate of the INDIA bloc, did not press for a division vote. It was not keen to showcase how much behind NDA it was in terms of numbers. The best part of the Speaker’s election was that it brought together PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi, who in his new role as Leader of the Opposition. Both of them were spotted shaking hands as they escorted Birla to the Speaker’s chair. As PM Modi noted Birla’s “warm smile brightens up the entire House,” and how efficiently he ran the House in the last 5 years .Opposition leaders were quick to harp on how he had suspended 146 MPs in 2023. Rahul Gandhi in his speech hoped Birla would allow the Opposition to speak and said “The question is not how efficiently the House is run. The question is how much of India’s voice is being allowed to be heard.” Congress sources say there would have been no hype over the Speaker’s election if only KC Venugopal had not bargained about deputy speaker’s post in his initial meeting with Rajnath Singh.

With no consensus between the ruling NDA and the Opposition INDIA bloc over Lok Sabha Speaker post and the deadline for the nominations nearing, the two alliances have separately fielded their candidates. This is the first election for Lok Sabha Speaker since Independence. On June 26, as the Lok Sabha convenes, the legislators will vote to elect the next Speaker, choosing between the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Om Birla as NDA candidate and Congress’ Kodikunnil Suresh as the Opposition nomination. Om Birla, a three-time MP from Kota, and longest-serving Lok Sabha MP from Kerala K Suresh have filed their nominations for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker.  A Lok Sabha Speaker is elected by a simple majority. More than half of the 543 members present in the Lok Sabha vote for a particular candidate to become the Speaker of Lok Sabha. The NDA, which has 293 MPs in the 543-member Lok Sabha, enjoys a clear majority. The Opposition bloc has 234 legislators in the lower House of Parliament. Apparently many Opposition parties like the TMC and even NCP (Sharad Pawar) are not happy with the decision to go for a contest. TMC felt the Congress took a unilateral decision to contest the Speaker’s post without consulting other parties. With numbers in favour of the NDA, Om Birla is set to become the Lok Sabha Speaker for a second term.  INDIA bloc said it was willing to support the NDA candidate but only if the deputy Speaker post is given to the Opposition. Clearly, the government did not wish a trade-off over the Deputy Speaker’s post. The Deputy Speaker’s post would probably go to one of its allies, the TDP.

Congress leaders in Kerala are yet to recover from the idea that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee would campaign for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Wayanad Lok Sabha by-elections. That, whenever it happens. This is a seat vacated by her brother earlier this month and it will mark Priyanka’s foray into electoral politics. Reports of Mamata working as a political mentor for Priyanka in Kerala emerged as an idea, post senior Congress leader P Chidambaram’s confabulations with Mamata recently. Party sources said though it is not clear what exactly transpired in the chat between the two leaders, it is possible that  the two leaders may have discussed better relations and for better coordination inside the Parliament. As for the Wayanad, Kerala Congress sources made it clear that it is the best seat in the “state for the Congress”. “Let us not forget that Rahulji has won Wayanad twice — both in 2019 and in 2024– by a margin of 3 lakhs. We have never taken support of any outside help. What will Mamata ji come and do here? Priyankaji will easily win here”, asserted an AICC functionary. Party sources pointed it is possible efforts are being made to keep Didi in good humour. The Kerala campaign perhaps could be a sop to humour the Bengal leader who has failed to expand beyond her state. Sources said it was Chidambaram’s idea to keep TMC close to the Congress. He had reportedly told Mamata that the Modi Government would not last beyond the next round of assembly polls and the Opposition must unite to dislodge the regime. He has been similarly working on the DMK too!

After Mamata Banerjee dealt a body blow  to West Bengal PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by getting  him defeated in Berhampore Lok Sabha by fielding  cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Gujarat,  a whole lot of possibilities seems to have opened up for  the Congressman. Adhir is quite upset with the Congress leadership that did not pitch in any help during Bengal polls. In fact, post-defeat, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called him up and urged him not to vacate his Lutyens’s bungalow and promised to find something for him. To media queries about his switch to the BJP, Adhir has neither confirmed nor denied it.  Yes, Modi-Shah are thinking of fielding Adhir as a Rajya Sabha candidate from Tripura in place of former CM Biplab Deb who has got elected to the Lok Sabha. The buzz is Adhir could be eventually inducted as a central minister and deployed to work in Bengal. Under Suvendu Adhikari’s leadership, the BJP in Bengal has been struggling. Apart from traditional leaders such as Dilip Ghosh who can take on Mamata, there are only a handful of leaders in the BJP who can take on the Trinamool. Of course, if Adhir joins the BJP he could prove to be a major irritant for Mamata. That means, for the TMC leader, getting Adhir defeated in Lok Sabha may not have been a wise move at all.

When Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was announced Lok Sabha candidate from Wayanad in Kerala by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, replacing her brother Rahul there was a lot of speculation about the timing of the announcement. Why did the Congress pick a festival day for the Muslims — Bakri Eid — to make the announcement? Is it because Muslims constitute the majority of the voters in Wayanad? Party sources also confirmed that the Indian Union Muslim League was consulted about Priyanka entering the fray. Though Priyanka has worked in both Amethi and Rae Bareli since 1999, for some reason her brother Rahul was reluctant to let her enter the fray. In fact many Priyanka loyalists in the party were disappointed that she did not get an opportunity to contest from Uttar Pradesh. For some reason Rahul did not want to pit Priyanka against Smriti Irani in Amethi, though later he bragged that his sister could have easily defeated PM Modi in Varanasi.  It is being said because Rahul Gandhi wanted to take the credit of bringing down Modi’s numbers in UP. He was aware that he could do it only because of the unstinted support of the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav and the web of lies spread by the Congress. Congress sources insist that Priyanka would focus on the organisation and leave Parliament leadership to her brother. Of course, if she were to take an active role in the Lok Sabha, PM Modi and his team may find it hard to counter her. The BJP insisted that Priyanka should have been fielded from Rae Bareli if the Congress had to prove its resurgence, “instead of running away like a coward” tweeted BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya.

Everyone in Delhi media has been talking about EAM Dr S Jaishankar, particularly the way he grieved for the passing away of his batch mate,  Harpal Singh Bedi from JNU even as he was away on  G-7 summit in Apulia, Italy. Not only did he tweet the photo of their varsity days — describing them as the first batch of JNU students for International Studies — but the minister also made it a point to attend his friend’s funeral in Delhi the same day as soon as he returned from the summit. Many hailed the EAM for being so down to earth and remembering his friend in the midst of his hectic international engagement.  Many in the social media noted that the EAM was indeed a good friend to have. However, those who knew Bedi, working with news agency UNI, recall Jaishankar always kept a low profile and made it a point to catch up with Bedi whenever he had the time. Clearly, Team Modi 3.0 has ministers who take themselves lightly.

In an informal interaction with journalists in Delhi, his first since Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi exuded a sense of satisfaction over the results. He seemed satisfied that he had been able to ensure reduced numbers of the treasury benches. Yes, he accepted that he had the satisfaction of seeing a once powerful PM Modi now handicapped, and is dependent on NDA allies like the TDP and the JDU to survive in office. Rahul who has made up his mind to retain Raebareli and give up Wayanad, is likely to field his sister Priyanka from the Kerala seat. Of course, some party sources suggested that the Congress may be tempted to field a local leader if Priyanka is reluctant. Rahul also indicated that he would continue to keep up his agitational politics against the government by undertaking a state-wide yatra. Party sources, however, are still not sure who will be the next Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Will Rahul wait until his sister gets elected or will it be one of his close aides? The only worry for the Gandhi scion is that the ED cases in National Herald case could continue with the same vigour.

In a surprise move, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai dropped by Chennai South candidate Tamilisai Soundarajan’s house in Chennai and briefly chatted up with her. The interaction follows furore in the social media over home minister Amit Shah publicly censuring her for her comments against lack of alliance between AIADMK and BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls; Tamilisai blamed Annamalai for severing ties with the AIADMK. Tamilisai, who belongs to the influential Nadar community, had resigned as Telangana Governor, as she was hoping to get elected as MP and become a central minister. She was aware of the effort made by Annamalai to build the BJP in the state and was hoping to capitalise on the goodwill created by him. She had polled as much as 2 lakh votes, which is sizable. However her remarks against Annamalai were not liked by the BJP top brass as it was the AIADMK which had walked out of the NDA fearing loss of minority votes in September 2023. It was Annamalai’s effort that had helped the BJP increase its vote share to 11.24 %. Meanwhile, Annamalai also hit back at DMK’s K Kanimozhi after she mocked him for not winning any seat in Tamil Nadu. The NDA, which comprised 7 parties besides the BJP, could not win any seat even though its vote share went up. Kanimozhi said Annamalai’s loss in Coimbatore showed that there was no place for the BJP in TN. She also said that Annamalai’s continuation as BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief was not good. Responding to Kanimozhi’s remarks, Annamalai said: “If my father was Karunanidhi, I too would have won all elections easily in Tamil Nadu. My father’s name is Kuppuswamy. He is a farmer and nobody in my family has got any smell of politics.”

Ever since he was picked as Minister of State (MoS) by PM Narendra Modi to be in his team 3.0, Suresh Gopi the BJP’s first leader to be elected from Thrissur Lok Sabha, Kerala has been battling a series of denials. First it was speculated that he wanted to be relieved of his ministerial responsibilities. He was not too happy that he had been designated only as MoS and not given Cabinet rank. He was upset that he should be given the same rank as one bestowed on a party veteran — George Kurian who had served Kerala BJP for 4 decades.  Besides, as an actor, Gopi wanted to complete his film assignments. “My films are definitely one of my priorities. I think I will be given the space…My PM and Home Minister will find a method by which I will not ditch my passion,” he reiterated his commitment even as he took charge of the Ministry of Tourism.   A junior minister also in the Ministry of Petroleum, Gopi was caught giving heartburns to party workers in Thrissur. High on his victory when he won against CPI’s VS Sunil Kumar by a margin of 74,686 votes. Gopi had spoken about fielding female film stars for the state assembly elections from his Lok Sabha constituency. “If an MP starts speaking like this we will finish our party workers,” pointed out a worried BJP Kerala leader. Meanwhile, BJP veteran George Kurian who took charge as MoS in the Minority Affairs Ministry and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Ministry, may have felt rewarded for all the quiet work he put for Kerala BJP all these years.

On hindsight it may seem it was perhaps only well that BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik did not encourage his senior party MP Bhartruhari Mahtab from Cuttack who was well versed with Lok Sabha proceedings to become Deputy Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha. The buzz now is the Odisha MP who switched to the BJP and is a 7-term MP could be the BJP’s choice for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker. Mahtab, son of former Odisha chief minister Hare Krushna Mahtab, has the experience, temperament and intellectual gravitas needed for the job. Mahtabh, who is among the 19 BJP MPs who won, had defeated corporate honcho Santrupt Misra, who had declared assets worth Rs 450 crore. Asked to comment on his electoral battle, Mahtab likened it to the electoral battle fought between late BJP leader Ananth Kumar and Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani in 2014 in Bangalore South (Lok Sabha) seat.  “Corporate people come with different ideas,” he pointed out. His victory against huge money was a clear indication of the Modi wave in Odisha. But then Nilekani, the techie who gave us Aadhar, had lost the polls in 2014 also because of the first Modi wave that year.

There is so much anger in Karnataka BJP over party candidate Lallu Singh for losing the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat under which falls Ayodhya; the seat has been won by Samajwadi Party which fielded a Dalit candidate mocking the Ram Mandir movement. BJP workers from the southern state have been trying to reach Lallu and attempted to give him an earful. He was a two-term MP and had remained inaccessible to his constituency. If one listens to the viral video (https://youtu.be/MOdV377sA3k?si=hiVLX020RMIa4MqM), one will get the sense of how arrogant a BJP leader can be when he is speaking to his own party workers. The workers launch a blistering attack on him for losing Ayodhya. “You should not have contested. After all Yogiji opposed you as a candidate, “Lallu can be heard defending his rout by saying — he wasn’t the only one to lose. Why did Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer — who contested from Etah lose?” he asks. He is also heard asking the southern party workers about who was Yogi to cancel his ticket.  Sources close to Yogi conceded that the UP CM had no role in picking candidates. In fact he had even stayed away from campaigning for most of the candidates As a result some of Shah’s loyalists like Smriti  Irani had to bite dust. Ever since the CM was objecting to renomination of most sitting MPs, the BJP fellas were all getting around Yogi’s nod   endorsed by home minister Amit Shah. BJP sources said the elephant in the room was subtle competition between Shah and Yogi. In fact at the NDA meeting on June 7, PM Modi sent out a loud message of endorsement of Yogi’s leadership by warmly patting his back at the Central Hall of Parliament.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) has shared a cryptic post on X in which he has talked about both Nyay and Vikas — two ideas that are close to the Congress and the BJP. He is all set to play a kingmaker’s role after Lok Sabha 2024 results, it is interesting that he has used both the terms. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar’s JDU performed better than NDA allies as it contested along with the BJP. In fact, he walked out of the RJD tie-up under pressure of MPs and sided with the BJP. His party is leading in 14 and BJP in 11. There are speculations that Nitish Kumar, who has a history of switching sides at key moments, is keeping both options open. Many social media users earlier speculated that the Bihar CM could change sides again and join the I.N.D.I.A bloc if he is offered the PM’s post. In fact there were reports that Nitish initially resisted meeting the Bihar BJP chief. When such reports reached Delhi, BJP’s top leadership had a special emissary sent to him to ensure that he reaches Delhi to attend the NDA meeting on June 5. At least one state CM and I.N.D.I.A leader– Mamata Banerjee– is not very happy about the importance that PM Modi is bestowing on Nitish Kumar. She is getting quite upset about the talk of the deputy PM’s post being offered to him. She had reportedly brushed off performance claims about JDU, considering the TMC has also done well. After all both Nitish and she have been rail ministers in the Vajpayee government. Both the leaders are not known to get along.

One of the biggest surprises of the 2024 Lok Sabha results was that the I.N.D.I.A bloc gave a tough fight to the BJP-led NDA in Uttar Pradesh. While everyone has been lauding Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav for repackaging his party and making a spectacular comeback, BJP sources said the I.N.D.I.A front gained mainly by manufacturing a lie about reservation and how Modi in his third term would do away with it. It was this lie that saw the BJP falling short of a majority on its own in the 543-member parliament. The SP and the Congress deliberately spread panic among dalits and managed to win 42 seats. This means Modi will have a lot of trouble in his third term as he will have to depend on allies to form the government. It will introduce some uncertainty in policy-making as Modi has ruled with a free hand in the last decade. The party has so far won 239 seats compared to the 303 seats it had won in 2019. Besides in UP alone, it appears Ram Mandir has not yielded the party any special dividend. In fact, before the temple was built in 2019, the BJP had bagged 62 of 80 seats in UP, but in the post Ram Mandir era the BJP has been restricted to 38 seats, bringing down the overall BJP tally and weakening PM Modi’s third term. Party sources conceded that the conspiracy theories floated by the Congress and SP weakened Modi’s mandate. Congress leaders twisted the call for a 400 paar mandate as a ploy to undo reservations for the Dalits. “There are 17 reserved seats in UP. Because of this damaging campaign by Congress we have been restricted to three or four reserved seats this time. As a result this time our tally from UP has been hit,”points out a BJP Dalit leader.

Ahead of the last day of polling for the 18th Lok Sabha across 57 seats including Varanasi from where PM Narendra Modi will be contesting for the third time, there is a quiet confidence in the ruling side about the number of seats the BJP will get. Yes there are some numbers to mull ahead of the Exit Poll. Top party bosses are apparently comfortable with reports that the BJP itself would be comfortably placed even as reports indicated that its allies in Maharashtra and Bihar are not able to deliver on candidates and perform just as well. It is being said the BJP is tipped to get 315 seats. Party sources said it may seem the BJP may have wasted its seats on the allies. BJP feels in Maharashtra the NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction does not seem keen on continuing in the NDA for the assembly polls. It is felt Ajit may merge his faction with his uncle Sharad Pawar for the assembly polls. Again, though PM Modi has gone all out backing the breakaway Shiv Sena group headed by Eknath Shinde, the ruling Sena may not come out in the top because of the choice of candidates. Performance of alliance partners could drag BJP in Bihar too.  RJD’s pitched campaign against JD(U) for Nitish Kumar’s flip-flop could hit some JD(U) candidates. Chirag Paswan’s skewed candidate selection has hit the NDA image in the state. It is for this reason that BJP leadership has begun to talk about doing very well in West Bengal and Odisha. Of course, PM Modi’s confidence to form the next government has not stopped the Congress leadership from staking claiming to form the government in Delhi. Meanwhile, in a copycat act of the TMC, the DMK also chose to stay away from the I.N.D.I.A bloc meet called on June 1.

At PM Modi’s rally in Mayurbhanj, Odisha while his speech was underway, a journalist fainted. Known for his eye for detail, PM Modi saw him fainting from the stage. He stopped his speech and asked his medical team to attend to him at the earliest. It was ensured that the journo got prompt medical attention and was subsequently shifted to the district hospital. PM Modi who has been speaking to TV journalists from Delhi while campaigning in Varanasi and Kolkata has apparently had a record interaction with a variety of journalists across platforms from all over the country since the Lok Sabha elections were announced. While BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya acknowledges that PM Modi had spoken to “71 different sets of journalists, from editors to beat reporters”, party sources say media interactions could be a record of sorts. Something like upwards of 125. Sources say Modi has been liberal with media interactions this election season. He had even sought out beat journos from media groups who he was familiar with, raising quite a few eyebrows in media houses, like seeking out one or two senior editors he had known. At the same time, Modi has been wary of owners doubling up as editors that he refused to share space with them at the roundtable space along with the beat journos. It is another matter he did  generously pose for post-interview pictures with them. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, opposition’s Prime Ministerial candidate, didn’t give a single media interview this election. The Congress leader has maintained that the media is biased against him.

There was excitement in political circles when BJP president JP Nadda first made a statement in a TV interview and later to English daily, The Indian Express that broadly meant that his party had “grown from the time it needed the RSS and was now ‘saksham’ (capable) to run its own affairs”. According to Nadda, BJP’s parent body Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was an “ideological front and does its own work”. Nadda’s assertion coming in the midst of elections made a Congress spokesperson wonder why there was no public debate on the “strained relationship” between the BJP and Sangh. The moot point is that BJP and Sangh have maintained their own separate identity even during Vajpayee era. Sangh leaders have always maintained that the RSS is not a political party but a socio-cultural organisation involved in nation-building. They claim that the RSS does not take part in elections nor its office-bearers are supposed to become office-bearers of any political party. RSS sources said what Nadda said was not off the mark. The BJP has grown and expanded under PM Modi’s leadership in the last decade only with inclusion of several non-RSS leaders in the party.” Take the case of Assam where with inclusion of former Congress leader Himanta Biswas Sarma, who is doing a fantastic job in the spread and growth of the BJP in the North East. Such inclusions are happening across India. In Odisha we have some BJD leaders joining us, “pointed out an RSS leader. Meanwhile Nadda’s tenure as party president was extended till June 2024. Lots of speculations about who will succeed him. Whoever it is, she/he will be PM Modi’s choice tasked to implement delimitation and women’s reservation by 2029.

It was a sort of “Indira is India” moment for the BJP made by the infamous Congress leader DK Barooah during Emergency. Puri Lok Sabha candidate Sambit Patra committed sacrilege when he remarked that Lord Jagannath was a bhakt or devotee of PM Narendra Modi. Dubbing it as a slip of tongue, he announced that he would undertake a penance and fast for three days. Taking a jibe at Patra, BJD leader and close aide of Odisha chief minister, VK Pandian cautioned Patra against fasting in this scorching heat. “I think he should take care, there is too much heat and dust. He should eat properly and take care. Three days before elections, he should not faint. He is a doctor, he should know what to do.” The BJD leader denied it would escalate this issue as it did not believe in doing politics over religion, especially Lord Jagannath who is the symbol of Odisha’s identity. A day earlier, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik denounced Patra’s remark saying it has hurt the sentiments and demeaned the faith of crores of Jagannatha bhaktas and Odias across the world. The BJP candidate clarified that he wanted to mean that PM Modi was an ardent devotee of Lord Jagannath. To think the gaffe happened on a day, Modi had campaigned for him in Puri!

Amidst allegations of assault by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal against Bibhav Kumar, personal aide of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on May 13 and registration of FIR against him, AAP has unleashed a full-scale war in social media to damage Swati. The party released video footage of what happened at Kejriwal’s residence on May 13 to battle allegations of Swati assault. The video recordings are not CCTV footage as CM’s drawing room is not fitted with cameras. It is a video by somebody inside. In unleashing personal attacks on Swati, AAP seems to have completely lost its logic. For a party that initially admitted Bibhav Kumar had assaulted her. Kejriwal deployed his minister Atishi Singh to dub Swati as a BJP stooge. It may be recalled that Kejriwal’s assault of Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in 2018 had no video evidence because of lack of CCTV images in the drawing room. BJP sources said in her call PCR from CM’s residence, Swati had clearly mentioned that she had been attacked by Bibhav Kumar at the behest of CM (she referred to him in  third person). Oddly, she did not mention him in the FIR. As images of her walking with difficulty to AIIMS for medical check-up and trip to the magistrate to register her statement, it established beyond doubt that she had been assaulted by Kejriwal’s PA. That’s why senior ministers in the government like FM Nirmala Sitharaman and Assam CM Himanta Sarma came out rallying in her support. Delhi BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa pointed out that it was Sunita Kejriwal who had prompted Bibhav to attack Swati. That’s why Kejriwal has gone all out to protect Bibhav. In the FIR, Swati reportedly appealed to Bibhav not to hit her as she was menstruating and in pain. “I repeatedly told him that I am having my period and he should please let go of me as I am in unbearable pain.” It was only thereafter that she called the police.

DMK top brass led by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin has been in a huddle at party headquarters mulling party’s options in the country’s polity with the kind of Lok Sabha results that 2024 would throw up on June 4. Two things are really worrying the DMK — one is the indication that Congress may not be in a position to form government at the Centre. Which means the party will have to explore post poll realignment. Probably explore the idea of having a good working relationship with the NDA. Besides, the regional party it is being said has also been very miffed with the way it did not get to play any national role in the I.N.D.I.A Bloc in North India. The DMK because of TN minister Udayanidhi Stalin’s utterances against sanatana dharma which is generally considered synonymous with Hinduism in rest of India became a sticking point even for secular parties like RJD and SP in the Hindi belt. So much stigma was attached to the DMK that the party was not even invited to big I.N.D.I.A events in Mumbai and Patna. Responding to Stalin’s worry about lack of role in the North, a senior AICC functionary described it as a “bahana, an excuse.” What Stalinji is trying to do is looking for an excuse like Mamata to get out of the I.N.D.I.A front. Just as TMC is talking about outside support now, so that it can join hands with Modi-led NDA if PM needs support, the DMK is also looking for an excuse.” Meanwhile TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai who is an MLA has begun talking about strengthening the Congress independent of the support of Dravidian parties — taking a leaf out of state BJP leader K Annamalai. The buzz is Stalin wants to advance state polls and install his son as CM. Also sister Kanimozhi is keen to head the Parliamentary team.

In a significant development, Delhi Police recorded AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal’s statement in connection with alleged assault on her on May 13 at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence. Her statement to the police comes four days after the incident when she had made two calls to PCR from CM’s residence. On the day of the incident, Swati had gone to the police station to file a complaint but had refrained from doing so and had remained incommunicado. In her initial complaint she had blamed Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar and another person for assaulting her. It is not clear if her police complaint followed efforts made by Delhi Police to reach her. Delhi’s Additional Commissioner of Police Special Cell and Additional DCP North   visited Swati’s residence. Swati’s complaint to cops is bound to spell trouble for Kejriwal perhaps cancellation of his bail. It is not clear what would be Swati’s fate after this fate — it is quite likely she would not be able to stay in the AAP. There is already talk of Punjab Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha having moved close to BJP.  Taking suo moto cognizance of media reports of Swati being assaulted by Bibhav, the NCW has summoned him to appear before it on May 17. It must be recalled that, two days after the assault, Kejriwal had sent Sanjay Singh to negotiate with Swati. Singh had accepted that Bibhav had attacked Swati. However, instead of keeping promise made to Swati, AAP supremo Kejriwal tried to brazen out the assault incident. He reached Lucknow for a media interaction with assaulter Bibhav Kumar. Sanjay Singh gave vague excuses like Manipur incidents and Prajwal Rewanna to justify non-action on Bibhav. The only silver lining was Congress leader Priyanka Vadra came out in support of Swati notwithstanding her party’s alliance with AAP.  

Astrology scholar Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid, a figure revered not only for his knowledge in astrology but also for his role in determining the auspicious moment for the foundation laying of the Ram Janambhumi and the consecration of Ram Lalla  were among the four people who proposed PM Narendra Modi’s nomination for  the Varanasi Lok Sabha  for the third time. Hailing originally from Tamil Nadu, Ganeshwar has made the Meerghat area of Kashi his home, residing at the Sangveda Vidyalaya in the ancient city. He is the second son of Rajeshwar Shastri, who was also a scholar of Vedas and Shastras. He lives along with his brother, Pandit Vishweshwar Shastri, who is also an equally esteemed scholar. When in Kashi, Ganeshwar teaches and primarily implements decisions provided by the Girvanavagvardhini Sabha at the Sangveda Vidyalaya. Additionally, he generously offers guidance on astrology, Ayurveda, and rituals to address people’s concerns. Ganeshwar operates his own Shastrarthshala, established by his great grandfather who had migrated from Tamil Nadu. Legend has it that when his grandfather arrived in Kashi, local Pandits rigorously examined him before granting him residence. According to reports, Ganeshwar’s ancestry can be traced to Thiruvisanallur, a small village near Kumbakonam in Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu. Ganeshwar Shastri’s remarkable contributions include determining the auspicious timings for the consecration of Ramjanmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya. Particularly, he was the one who identified the special muhurtham of 84 seconds for the consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya. For the Bhumi Pooja of Ram Mandir, he had allocated a precise 35 seconds as the auspicious time based on astronomical calculations. Other significant events like the consecration of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham and also its Bhumi Pujan were also marked by him. While 13th December had been deemed auspicious for the inauguration in Kashi, many scholars had opposed it, citing...

 A day after former DCW chief Swati Maliwal approached the Delhi police alleging assault inside Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house, the Aam Aadmi Party admitted that the AAP chief’s aide had “misbehaved” with her. Maliwal, a senior AAP leader and a Rajya Sabha MP, went to the Civil Lines police station on May 13 morning and claimed she was assaulted by Arvind Kejriwal’s personal assistant, Bibhav Kumar. However, she didn’t lodge an official complaint. Curiously a day after the episode, AAP MP Sanjay Singh came forward to acknowledge that Kejriwal’s aide indeed had misbehaved with Maliwal when the latter was waiting to meet Kejriwal at his house. It is not clear why Kejriwal is in a damage control mode now. “A condemnable incident took place. Swati Maliwal had gone to Arvind Kejriwal’s residence to meet him. While she was waiting for him in the drawing room, Bibhav Kumar allegedly misbehaved with her. The CM has taken cognizance of the matter, and he will take appropriate action,” Sanjay Singh said. As per Delhi Police records Maliwal had called the PCR number at 9.34 am on May 13. AAP sources say Swati was most likely being pressured by Kejriwal to vacate her Rajya Sabha seat– a position that is being coveted by his lawyer who lost his RS seat in a draw of lots recently from a hill state. That is why no sooner than AAP leader Sanjay Singh came up with a false narrative of action against Bibhav Kumar, Swati’s ex-husband Naveen Jaihind asked him to stop acting. He also felt there could be a threat to Swati’s life. Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar has informally sought to know if Swati as RS member would be needing security cover.

In a bizarre incident, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal was reportedly assaulted at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence by his PA Bibhav Kumar. As per calls made to police PCR from CM’s residence, the police received two calls. At first, the woman didn’t reveal her name. But in the second call made around 9.54 am, the caller said her name was Swati Maliwal and she accused Bibhav Kumar of manhandling her. Oddly Swati, who had headed Delhi Commission of Women for 9 years (July 2015-Jan 2024) did not follow up the assault charge with a written complaint. It is being speculated that she initially took two names — police are not sure if she had directly named Kejriwal. Swati had gone to meet with Kejriwal; she was not in India when he was arrested. Bibhav was denying Swati access to meet Kejriwal. BJP leaders dubbed CM’s office as a “boxing ring”, recalling how Kejriwal had assaulted chief secretary Anshu Prakash (Feb 2018) by calling a meeting of his MLAs at midnight. Bansuri Swaraj, the BJP candidate from New Delhi, claimed it was most likely that it was Kejriwal who must have instigated the alleged assault on Swati. AAP sources said party circles including wife Sunita Kejriwal have resented phenomenal growth of Swati — particularly her nomination to Rajya Sabha in January 2024. She was not seen as a grassroot AAP worker. Within AAP, Swati was seen as someone who was always aloof as she had worked with Kejriwal’s NGO. It is possible with Sunita’s growing clout and say in AAP affairs, one could see more such skirmishes at Sheeshmahal!

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has reportedly made it clear to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that he must ensure Kanhaiya Kumar, former JNU student leader and Congress candidate for Delhi’s North-East Lok Sabha seat wins. This is the only seat where the BJP has repeated its candidate, Manoj Tiwari, who is considered to be a popular candidate. With Rahul making the extra push and Kejriwal promising to deliver, BJP sources say the contest will get keen in this seat as well as in South Delhi where the party had changed candidates. In 2019, Rahul’s efforts to get Kanhaiya elected from Bihar did not get adequate support from the RJD (he lost to Union Minister Giriraj Singh). After being in jail for 50 days, Kejriwal, the AAP star campaigner, began his poll campaign .Twenty parliamentary seats in Delhi and Punjab – two states where the Kejriwal-led AAP is in power – will go to polls in the fifth and sixth phase on May 25 and June 1. In his first public interaction, he began with making a wild charge that there was no point in voting for PM Modi as he wouldn’t be around to fulfil his guarantee. He charged that since Modi would be turning 75 next year he would perhaps retire and hand over reins to HM Amit Shah. Responding to Modi’s “retirement”, Countering Kejriwal, both Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh clarified that PM Modi will not only complete his 3rd term till 2029 but will also lead the party for “next round of polls”.

Both Priyanka Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are very proud of the Congress guarantees and how it has helped the party capture power in at least two southern states — Karnataka and Telangana and in Himachal. However if they were to hear the way senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria is pitching the Mahalakshmi guarantee for women — promised in the party manifesto — that guarantees woman Rs 1 lakh in her bank account — as an assured scheme for polygamy, the Gandhis would be surely shocked. Bhuria who is contesting the Ratlam Lok Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh, stirred controversy when he said that women from each household would receive “Rs 1 lakh, and those with two wives would get Rs 2 lakh If Congress comes to power, as our manifesto states,” Bhuria said while addressing a poll rally in Ratlam. The Congress on April 5 released the manifesto ‘Nyay Patra’ for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and has promised to introduce the ‘Mahalakshmi Scheme’ in the poll manifesto which will provide Rs 1 lakh annually or Rs 8, 500 per month to the poor to alleviate poverty. While the manifesto has made no mention of two wives, it is Bhuria at his imaginative best. Tearing into Bhuria, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said Kantilal Bhuria has disclosed the “perverted variant of ‘jitni aabadi utna haq’ scheme/guarantee of Congress. It’s not about women samman but treating women like an object……disgusting.”

In a boost to the I.N.D.I.A front, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on May 10 — three days after the Enforcement Directorate argued that politicians could not be treated differently from non-politicians in the PMLA case. Kejriwal has been granted bail till June 1 in connection with a money laundering case connected to the Delhi excise policy scam even as his counsel pleaded that his bail be extended till June 4 — that is the day of Lok Sabha results. The court has asked the AAP supremo to surrender on June 2. The interim bail has been granted in order to enable Kejriwal to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal, stated that interim bail was essential to ensure that Kejriwal had a level playing field in the upcoming elections as Delhi votes on May 25. The ED had arrested Kejriwal on March 21. There is a sense of jubilation over release of the AAP chief in the I.N.D.I.A front with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee welcoming it. Congress sources, however are not sure if Kejriwal would have polled more votes for the alliance from behind the bars in Tihar or now actively out campaigning across states. Opposing his bail solicitor general Tushar Mehta admitted that “only thing at stake was Kejriwal’s right to campaign for elections, which was not an absolute right to begin with”. Dismissing the objections, the bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna felt “There are extraordinary circumstances for interim bail. We are only examining if those circumstances were met here, in view of the upcoming elections.”

In an unexpected twist, PM Modi picked on Rahul Gandhi’s accusation of crony capitalism by asking “why Shehzada had suddenly stopped talking of Ambani and Adani in this elections all of sudden? He wanted to know if he had been “compromised” into silence by the big business houses. Addressing an election rally in Telagnana’s Warangal, Modi shared how for years after he lost the Rafale battle in the courts, “Congress ke shehzade din raat ek mala japte the…’5 industrialists’, ‘Ambani’, ‘Adani’.., but since the elections are declared, they have stopped abusing Ambani, Adani…” He said, “I wish to ask the Shehzade of the Congress, how much black money have they received from Adani, Ambani? How much the Congress has ‘received’ from those industrialists for the elections?” PM Modi’s questions are interesting considering at least two former CMs — Ashok Gehlot for Amethi and Bhupesh Bhagel for Rae Bareli — have been deployed to manage the elections for the UP seats. The former CMs with resources have been deployed to “salvage” the prestige seat for Gandhis. Initially it was Priyanka Vadra who rushed to her brother’s defence while campaigning in Rae Bareli and attacked Modi for being nervous about his nexus with Adani and Ambani. Later, Rahul shared a video on X where he seemed very happy that PM Modi had for the first time named Adani and Ambani publicly. Taking a swipe at PM for suggesting that he may have cut deals with the top business honchos, Rahul wanted to know if Modi was speaking from his personal experience about transporting cash in tempos. He even suggested sending ED, CBI to the business groups..

In an usual move, Prof Ram Gopal Yadav, cousin of  Samajwadi Party founder, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, courted controversy when he remarked that the Ayodhya Ram Mandir was ‘bekar’ (useless) and not built according to ‘Vastu’.  It may seem odd that the Yadav patriarch should make these comments on the day of polling for third phase — when at least three members of Yadav family including his son Akshay, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple and Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya were trying their luck from Firozabad, Mainpuri and Badaun Lok Sabha seats. It was felt SP leaders have always been anti Ram temple as they have been anxious about pandering to their Muslim vote bank. UP CM Yogi Adityanath said “These are the same people who opened fire on Kar Sevaks and even denied the existence of Lord Ram.”  However, what added a new dimension to the Ram Mandir debate was a disclosure by former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was in favour of revisiting the Ayodhya judgement of the Supreme Court– that is if the Congress were to come to power at the Centre. Rahul wished to overturn the mandir verdict of the apex court just as his father Rajiv Gandhi had nullified Shah Bano order in the 80s. The temple which has proven to be a boon for UP and rejuvenated the state is now being threatened with political action. PM Modi used Krishnam’s disclosures in his campaign to warn people about the SP and the Congress’ evil designs on Ram Mandir. So far the Congress has not contradicted the claim.

The contest is keen as it is set to take place between BJP’s Dr Sambit Patra and Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) Arup Patnaik with the regional party replacing its candidate and sitting MP Pinaki Misra. The wager this time round is that Dr Patra could have an edge as he narrowly lost the 2019 polls to Pinaki Misra by 11,714 votes. Legal eagle Misra who has contested and won from Puri a record six times since 1996 did not wish to contest again. The BJD replaced Misra with Arup Patnaik, a former Mumbai top cop. The buzz about Patnaik is that he is too aloof as a candidate; he apparently doesn’t even get off his vehicle to interact with voters. He merely asks people if they know who he is. Sources sympathetic to Patnaik say he has some health issues and is not strong on communication. Yet,  BJD sources insist that the key to winning Puri would depend on the kind of  candidates selected and deployed in the assembly seats as state polls are being held with Lok Sabha polls . That is why Arup Patnaik still could be home and dry, if the right candidates have been picked as MLAs. “It all depends on what Bobby Das, our BJD General Secretary, who is contesting Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat against Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, has planned for Puri,”says a BJD veteran. All indications are BJP’s Dr Patra is having it easy at the assembly level too. Meanwhile, the Congress refused to let its candidate Sucharita Mohanty drop out due to lack of support. Senior leader KC Venugopal said that the party was replacing Sucharita with another candidate. Polling in Puri will take place in the sixth phase on May 25, along with assembly polls. In 2019, the BJP won a total of 8 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, BJD grabbed 12 and one seat went to Congress.

Nothing has disappointed Congressmen across the country more so in Uttar Pradesh than the fact that Priyanka Vadra did not figure as a candidate either from Raebareli or Amethi. Instead, her brother Rahul filed his papers from Raebareli, a seat their mother Sonia vacated, moving to a Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan. The Amethi seat which Rahul unsuccessfully contested in 2019 and lost to Smriti Irani was given to an old party hand, KL Sharma. Party sources said for some reason Rahul was not keen that his sister, who has shaped up as a key campaigner, should enter the fray. Maybe he will let her contest the Lok Sabha seat, say Wayanad, in the event he wins. With UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s goal of securing all the 80 Lok Sabha seats and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan also setting similar goals, Rahul may perhaps not get the privilege of making such a choice . That’s why Congress leaders insist keeping Priyanka out of the electoral fray at this stage isn’t a great idea and has impacted at least 25 seats. “Priyanka’s entry would have galvanised the Congress cadre. In fact, the Samajwadi Party was insisting that at least one of the Gandhis should enter the fray from UP. Rahul was not keen on fighting for a second seat. He had to be persuaded,” says an AICC functionary.  It is rather odd that Rahul didn’t want to share family turf with his sister. This at a time when party cadre feels more inspired by her.  With Women’s Quota becoming an Act, a reality that would be rolled out from 2029, Rahul should know he can have little choice.

BJP leaders are quite perplexed by Congress efforts to drag PM Narendra Modi into outright sexual misconduct of JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, just because he campaigned for the Hassan candidate.  Clearly upset with the BJP-JD(S) alliance that is having an edge in the LS polls, it is being said deputy chief minister DK Shiv Kumar(DKS) had reportedly zeroed in on Prajwal’s shortcomings just to undermine the alliance and had unleashed a digital campaign to dent the JD(S) image days before the April 26 voting. DKS, worried about the fate of his own brother DK Suresh losing to former PM HD Devegowda’s son-in-law Dr Manjunath that he resurrected an old video and circulated it in the constituency. BJP sources are surprised that the Congress which was too scared to speak up for women of Sandeshkhali, was now speaking for “exploited” women of Hassan. Home Minister Amit Shah shut-up the Congress by saying it was now up to Karnataka to probe the matter. As for Prajwal, he has been suspended from the JD(S).The video clips, allegedly involving Prajwal surfaced on social media a day after his constituency went to polls. On reports of Prajwal leaving the country pending a probe, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has asserted that Prajwal will be asked to return to India by the SIT. BJP Leader Devaraje Gowda said he had written to then BJP state president BY Vijayendra in December 2023, flagging “grave allegations” against the HD Deve Gowda family, including Prajwal Revanna. He claimed that he had received a pen drive containing 2,976 explicit videos of women which were then being used to blackmail them into continuing to engage in sexual activities. Meanwhile, the buzz is JD(S) Chief HD Kumaraswamy feels when his son Nikhil lost Ramanagara Assembly it had a lot to do with elder brother HD Revanna sabotaging it.

It is really interesting that on a day the Supreme Court dismissed petitions that called for comprehensive cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), the Congress  asserted  that  its “political campaign on the greater use of VVPATs to increase the public trust in the electoral process” would continue. This even after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X that “Congress was not a party, directly or indirectly, to the petition on VVPATs rejected by the Supreme Court”. So what is the Congress compulsion to continue its campaign against EVMs, something that it introduced while it was in power? Well, the answer lies in its 2024 manifesto where under the heading “Defending the Constitution” the party speaks about a promise to restore the voters’ trust in the election process. “We will amend the election laws to combine the efficiency of the EVM and the transparency of the ballot paper. Voting will be through the EVM but the voter will be able to hold and deposit the machine-generated voting slip into the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) unit. The electronic vote tally will be matched against the VVPAT slip tally.”  Of course such a promise goes against the latest SC verdict. That’s why even if one accepts the Congress position that it had nothing to do with the petition before the SC, PM Modi  may not be surely off the mark when he dubbed the apex court  verdict as a jolt “to those who wanted to loot ballot boxes “. The court had clearly said the era of ballot papers shall not return.

Ever since Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren –wives of jailed chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren — took part in the Opposition I.N.D.I.A rally on April 21 in Ranchi, their role in party politics seem to be getting firmer. AAP leadership now wants Sunita Kejriwal to campaign for its three Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi from April 27.  Sunita’s campaign will be to protest her husband’s arrest, explained Delhi minister Atishi Singh. Sunita Kejriwal will apparently hold a roadshow in East Delhi Lok Sabha on April 27, follow it up with another roadshow in the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency the following day. She is also expected to visit Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat.  AAP sources hope people of “Delhi, Punjab, and the entire country will vote in favour of Arvind Kejriwal”. The party has also launched a Lok Sabha campaign focussing on Kejriwal’s arrest by the ED. Titled Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se is a song written and sung by AAP MLA Dilip Pandey.  Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has declared Kalpana Soren, wife of jailed former chief minister Hemant Soren, as candidate for by-election to Gandey assembly seat. Bypoll in Gandey, which fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad, is scheduled on May 20 along with Lok Sabha polls in the state. Kalpana, a homemaker with MTech and MBA qualifications, is contesting from a general seat as she is a non-tribal and hails from Odisha. She was previously considered a frontrunner for the position of CM after Hemant Soren’s resignation but faced opposition from Sita Soren, the elder daughter-in-law of Shibu Soren.

Polling in Tamil Nadu, held in the first phase, has apparently left AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) very disturbed, particularly after he discovered that the party cadre did not even bother to reach out to voters. Soon after the voting was over, a livid Palanisami held a review meeting and gave the cadre a dressing down. Apparently, the AIADMK cadre was not happy about going alone, snapping ties with the BJP. With a potential ally like the PMK preferring to tie up with the BJP rather than the AIADMK, Palaniswami feels his party could draw a blank in the Lok Sabha polls. His rival O Panneerselvam has stood as an independent in Ramanathapuram backed by the BJP. Some AIADMK leaders wonder if snapping ties with the BJP was dictated by Palaniswami’s animosity towards TN BJP chief K Annamalai. EPS was so determined to defeat Annamalai that he had even deployed two or three of his close aides in Coimbatore.  As for breaking ties with the BJP, EPS had expressed concern over getting minority votes from southern districts. Post polling, doubts remain if any minority votes came AIADMK way.

At least two Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka –Gulbarga and Bangalore (Rural) — will witness two prestige battles of sorts of the sons-in- law. Gulbarga Lok Sabha will witness Radhakrishna Doddamani, son-law of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge taking on incumbent BJP MP Dr Umesh Jadhav, while Dr CN Manjunath, son-in-law of former PM HD Devegowda will be locked in a battle as BJP-JD(U) candidate  to oust DK Suresh, sitting  Congress MP and brother of Karnataka Deputy CM  DK Shivkumar. The most interesting part of the poll campaign is that 81-year-old Kharge tried to strike an emotional chord with the people of his home district of Kalaburagi.  He appealed to voters to at least attend his funeral if they thought he worked for them if they did not wish to vote for the Congress candidate. Kharge had lost in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress sources said Kharge is not confident of reclaiming Gulbarga seat via his relative. In contrast, Dr Manjunath, engaged in the prestige battle in the Vokkaliga stronghold of Bangalore Rural seat, is quite aware that he is up against the might of Congress’s DK brothers. Yet, what is giving him confidence is the BJP-JD(S) alliance and a certain “gratitude factor” as he is a cardiologist to work in his favour. Manjunathwho has done much clinical work says there are at least 10-15 cardiac patients that have been treated by his healthcare institute not only in Bangalore Rural but in every village. He adds that the gratitude factor among these patients has added momentum to his electoral campaign.  Of course, he is not relying on gratitude alone. “Narendra Modi’s charisma is there,” he has been quoted as saying.

Rahul Gandhi’s plans of announcing his intention to contest Amethi after Wayanad elections on April 26 took a hit with Union Minister Smriti Irani going to town about why and how the Congress has not yet declared a candidate for the seat. Neither jija Robert Vadra, who has been openly declaring his interest in Amethi, has been declared nor has Rahul Gandhi, who lost to Irani in 2019. Irani claimed she had ensured more work in the constituency in the last five years than Rahul did representing the Lok Sabha seat for three terms. Amethi goes to polls on May 20. “Jijaji ki nazar hai, saale sahab kya karenge. (brother-in-law is eyeing the seat, what will he (Rahul do?) There was a time when people travelling in buses would leave their handkerchief to mark their seat so that no one sits on it. Rahul Gandhi will also come to mark his seat with a handkerchief because his brother-in-law is eyeing this seat,” she told a gathering in Amethi.”Just 27 days left for election, but Congress has not announced its candidate,” Irani said. Rahul had evaded committing to contesting from Amethi by suggesting he “will do whatever the party orders me.” As for Vadra flaunting his interest in Amethi, Congress sources say he is a non-serious player. “He has been declaring his open interest in Amethi only because he doesn’t want his wife Priyanka to enter the fray at this juncture,” said a source. The Gandhi siblings do not value his opinion. After the clean chit he has got for his Haryana dealings, Vadra wants to be seen on the right side of the government.

The bluff and bluster of UP ke ladke or UP boys was on display. It was an unusual show  of confidence on display when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and SP leader Akilesh Yadav came together on Ram Navami to address a presser in Ghaziabad hotel in UP.  For parties that shunned Ram Temple inauguration, it was interesting that they followed up on Ram’s symbolism and had gathered in UP after Jayant Chaudhary and the RLD had left to partner with the NDA.  After all, even the TMC couldn’t resist releasing its manifesto on Ram Navami? It was interesting to see Rahul Gandhi bandy about some numbers, setting  a lower tally for  the NDA to browbeat the BJP; he asserted that the BJP would not cross 150, while his sister Priyanka gave the ruling alliance some  180 seats. The SP leader even predicted that the alliance between the Congress and the SP would spell the end of BJP from Ghaziabad to Ghazipur. When quizzed about the basis of the Gandhis’ claim to such  figures, Congress sources said it was their way of countering PM Modi’s “400 par” narrative. “There are about 230 Lok Sabha seats in the Ram Mandir belt (UP, Bihar, Himachal, Uttarakhand, MP, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and Chhattisgarh). While we expect the BJP to do well only in the Mandir belt, we don’t expect them to do well in coastal areas,” said a Congress leader. If the BJP is expected to do well in the Ram Mandir belt, how do Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi plan to contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli without even interacting with voters? This time SP will extend full cooperation. The Gandhis have been assured full support,” says a source

When Congress leader Manish Tewari was announced as candidate for Chandigarh Lok Sabha, party circles were quite surprised. Tewari was not close to the Gandhis. In fact, he was among G-23 signatories who had pushed for reforms in the party functioning, so how did he manage to get out of Punjab? He contested from Ludhiana (2014) and Anandpursahib(2019). Sources said Tewari was given Chandigarh only to deny ticket to Pawan Kumar Bansal, former AICC treasurer (2020- 2023). Bansal had consecutively won Chandigarh three times –1999, 2004 and 2009 — before losing 2014 and 2019 to BJP’s Kirron Kher. The Congress leadership is reportedly upset with Bansal for the way he handled party accounts. He is being viewed as responsible for the party’s on-going I-T troubles. But then it seems the Bansal camp is not inclined to give up the fight easily. Sources say, Bansal was expecting a ticket and had even begun campaigning and that is why his loyalists have begun to target Chandigarh Congress president Harmohinder Singh Lucky. He is having a hard time convincing local workers to support Tewari. As many as 15 designated members of the Chandigarh Congress have submitted their resignations to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, demanding the removal of Harmohinder Lucky from his post over his alleged disrespect to four-time MP Pawan Bansal on Instagram. Congress leaders are stunned that the BJP replaced incumbent MP Kirron Kher with Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon without a murmur. Meanwhile, eyebrows are being raised over the nomination of former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar from Delhi North-East against sitting BJP MP Manoj Tewari. A  Rahul Gandhi favourite, Kumar could not be accommodated in Bihar due to lack of support from RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

The Congress which lost a Rajya Sabha seat after six of its MLAs cross voted to the BJP candidate is trying to amp up its game in the Lok Sabha polls by fielding a royal heavyweight — PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh for Mandi in Himachal Pradesh against actor Kangana Ranaut. The Queen film actress has been in the limelight ever since BJP announced her nomination from Mandi. Historically, the Mandi constituency has favoured scions of erstwhile princely states, electing royals in 13 out of 19 elections, including two polls since 1952. However, with Singh and Kangana competing against each other from Mandi, the politics of Himachal has spiced up. Vikramaditya is the son of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh and Pratibha Singh. His mother Pratibha is the sitting MP from Mandi and the Congress’s state unit president.  Pratibha Singh did not want to contest as MP. Himachal Congress leaders said Vikramaditya was the best bet against BJP bulwark. BJP sources said Kangana was a self-made woman and symbolised what any driven person can achieve. Resting on the laurels of his family, Vikramaditya was conscious that his father Virbhadra Singh and mother had each won from Mandi thrice. He called Kangana “queen of controversies”, the actress termed him “Chota Pappu”. Party sources said before entering the fray both Pratibha and Vikramaditya had called on Sonia Gandhi. It is quite possible the Singhs may have sought a post-election deal — a deputy CM post for Vikramaditya if he fails to win.

 The BJP, which is heading a non-DMK, non-AIADMK bloc in Tamil Nadu and is contesting directly from 19 seats, including Coimbatore from where its state BJP chief K Annamalai is contesting, hopes to make good electoral inroads in the Dravidian heartland. With opinion polls indicating that the BJP could spring a surprise in the southern state, the buzz is that there is an unofficial tie-up between the DMK and the AIADMK to defeat the outlier BJP. In fact, the two Dravidian parties are so alarmed by the rise of Annamalai they are even uniting to defeat him in his Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency. Coimbatore is also the home ground of AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami. Which is why it does seem odd to see the AIADMK join hands with the DMK to fix Annamalai. It is being said a sinister project to defeat Annamalai in Coimbatore is being executed by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin’s son-in-law and businessman  V Sabareesan and minister’s son Udhayanidhi. Sabareesan has reportedly been making multiple trips to Coimbatore. Of course, the eagerness of DMK’s first family to pin down Annamalai in Coimbatore has not helped much. Annamalai has been busy traveling to other constituencies and all over the state. Opinion polls are indicating that the BJP-NDA could win four to six seats in Tamil Nadu. Non-BJP leaders concede that PM Modi has been giving a lot of attention to the state; he has visited Tamil Nadu over eight times since the beginning of 2024. Modi’s visits are naturally bound to yield results.

The arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor gate scam has deeply shaken the decade-old Aam Aadmi Party with a number of its MLAs and MPs looking for safe exit. In fact the resignation of one of Delhi’s six ministers, Dalit leader Raaj Kumar Anand, a day after the Supreme Court refused to provide urgent relief to Kejriwal has  added to unravelling of the AAP at least in Delhi. First, Kejriwal suffered a setback after Delhi High Court dismissed a challenge by him against his March 21 arrest by the ED. The court stated that the central agency was left with “little option” as Kejriwal had ignored several summons in the case. The ED also alleged that Kejriwal was actively involved in using and concealing the alleged proceeds of crime. Thereafter the Supreme Court also did not seem to be in a hurry to provide succour to him.  Meanwhile, desertions in the party began with the lone Lok Sabha member, Sushil Kumar Rinku, a dalit leader from Jalandhar joining the BJP along with Punjab MLA Sheetal Angural. It also set off a buzz that next in line to jump ship would be Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. In midst of these desertions senior AAP leader Dr Sandeep Pathak took an ostrich-like approach to those wishing to exit AAP. He tweeted “Jho bhajpa (BJP) mein jana chahte hain, unhe tata bye bye“. Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jhakhar found it odd that the AAP should be dismissive of those leaving the party. “Instead of reflecting on the reasons, Dr Pathak has reacted exactly in the same manner as Amrinder Warring of the Congress did when its leaders left Congress to join BJP. This arrogance will prove to be the one of the reasons for the undoing of both their parties”.

Has the Congress not been able to market its election manifesto because of PM Modi likening it to Muslim League charter? Probably, yes. A section of the Congress leaders feel the manifesto did have interesting features but the message got lost mid-way as the BJP attacked it for pandering to Muslims. In fact, PM Modi led the way likening the Congress’s assurances to the minority community as bearing resemblance to “Muslim League while a part of it is dominated by the Leftists”. He had charged the Congress of being cut off from the aspirations and expectations of today’s India. The Congress manifesto laid emphasis on Paanch Nyay or 5 pillars of justice as well as 25 guarantees as part of its election promises for Lok Sabha polls. For minorities, the Congress promised to “have the freedom of choice of dress, food, language and personal laws.” Party sources admit that instead of responding to Modi’s Muslim League charge, the Congress should have focused on its resolve to launch the Mahalakshmi scheme to provide Rs 1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer. “Instead of responding to Modi, if we had focussed on our message, we could have done better”. It could have been a game changer. That is if the Congress could get its message across to women voters. “I doubt, if we have applied our mind to this,” says a party leader. However, given the poor track-record of roll-out of Congress guarantees in Karnataka and Telangana, it is possible that women voters could be wary of such tall promises.

After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accompanied by sister Priyanka, filed his nomination papers for the Wayanad Lok Sabha in Kerala seat on April 5 and asserted that “this election is a fight for the soul of India; it is a fight to preserve our democracy from the forces of hatred, corruption, and injustice that seek to suppress the voice of Bharat Mata,” and vowed to “bring together every citizen from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Manipur to Mumbai to strengthen our Union of States.” Congress leaders were convinced that he would not contest from a safe “second” seat. That is at least in the South. Party sources said it was because there was no such safe seat other than Wayanad which had 98% minority voters. Rahul was determined to secure a second term from Wayanad. “We know CM Pinarayi Vijayan is making his efforts to secure all seats from Kerala but we are confident that Rahulji will pull it through,” said a Congress leader. Sources said Rahul could not explore a safe seat in Congress-ruled states like Telangana or Karnataka as the party had already finalised a total 208 candidates. In Telangana, Hyderabad and Khammam were the only seats that remained to be allocated. Does it mean Rahul will not fight a second seat at all? The Gandhi siblings have still not spoken their mind about family turf — Amethi and Rae Bareli. Notwithstanding Robert Vadra’s public claims, it is possible that Amethi could still be fought by someone from the family. So would Rae Bareli. Much of course would depend on which way Wayanad votes on April 26.

It is now amply clear that career diplomat and EAM S Jaishankar is not averse to playing a political role. At least that is what he has done ever since the Katchatheevu issue has come to occupy the centre stage of politics. It got the EAM to hold a presser, and explain how India gave away an island to Sri Lanka as it did not care much for fishing communities in Tamil Nadu. It was a follow-up on a RTI reply to Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai. However much of the political idea to pitch the vexed Katchatheevu issue into the centre -stage of Lok Sabha elections in the southern state is being credited to Jaishankar; Tamil Nadu goes to polls — first round — on April 19. Jaishankar’s suggestion that the party must focus on how Congress PMs displayed indifference about Katchatheevu Island and gave away Indian fishermen’s rights despite legal views to the contrary was liked by PM Modi and the TN BJP unit. Jaishankar pointed out how Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had dubbed Katchatheevu, given to Sri Lanka in 1974 as part of a maritime boundary agreement, as a “little island” and “little rock.” In May 1961, Nehru had written, ‘I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it.” Oddly, the DMK has been raising the issue in the Parliament and Jaishankar points out how he has written to the TN CM at least 21 times.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal must have surprised his party cadre when he named two junior ministers — Aatishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj — as people who were more aware of the now scrapped liquor policy than him. Why did he drag them into the multi-crore liquorgate? Atishi, Oxford educated and first term MLA is famed for assisting now jailed Manish Sisodia in reforming Delhi government schools. She has been with AAP since 2013. Did Kejriwal feel she was a threat to his wife Sunita? Saurabh Bharadwaj, a qualified engineer, may be facing brickbats from Delhites as Water Minister– the water meters are a scam that Kejriwal may have foisted on him. But did Bharadwaj and Atishi deserve to join Kejriwal league of Delhi’s dirty list — Manish Sisodia (in jail and has been dropped) Satyendra Jain (out on bail, no longer a minister) and Kailash Gahlot, Transport Minister was summoned by the ED. Kejriwal who was sent to judicial custody for a fortnight, does not hold any portfolio. Interestingly, Kerjiwal’s jail term came a day after the Opposition rallied behind him on March 31 and condemned ED action against him. A high point of the rally was the clash between the Congress and the AAP over display of Kejriwal cut-outs at Ramlila maidan. The Congress wanted to know why cut-outs of jailed ex-Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren were missing. Post Congress protest, Kejriwal’s cut-outs were removed. Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren displayed bonhomie by publicly hugging each other. Meanwhile it was the ED which informed the AAP leaders about Kejriwal’s claims. About how “Vijay Nair didn’t report to him but to Atishi and Bharadwaj and his interaction with Vijay Nair was limited.

When the BJP released its 5th list of candidates and Varun Gandhi did not find his name, he may have not been surprised. What may have surprised him was that his mother Maneka was still fielded from Sultanpur. That is because even before the list was out Varun was preparing to be axed and had wanted to file nomination papers as an independent candidate. He knew he had crossed quite a few red lines to be renominated as an MP candidate. In Pilibhit, the BJP had replaced him with former Congress leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada, a constituency represented by Varun twice. While Varun literally invited the wrath of the BJP leadership by attacking the Yogi Adityanath government in UP — license of Amethi’s Sanjay Gandhi Hospital was suspended following death of a patient, the Pilibhit MP also attacked policies of the Modi government in signed opinion pieces in newspapers. Congress sources said Varun had turned a rebel in the BJP only because his cousin Priyanka Vadra had encouraged him to do so. She had wanted Varun to create trouble, leave the BJP and eventually join the Congress. She had even arranged a conciliatory meeting between Varun and Rahul Gandhi. Somehow, Rahul was not open to Varun joining the Congress as of now. With his mother getting a BJP ticket, Varun may not be inclined to contest 2024 polls. Elections are always a season of crazy new endings and beginnings but the one that happened in Kurukshetra, Haryana takes the cake. BJP workers can’t still figure out why party leadership has fielded coal-scam tainted Naveen Jindal. BJP had defeated him in 2014 and 2019. In 2024,”We will not work for him”, says the demoralised cadre.