It seems Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been very reluctant to canvas in Tamil Nadu which goes to polls on April 23. Party sources admit that Rahul has been so upset with the few seats – 28 — given by the DMK that he has not been responding to phone calls from the DMK. The DMK leadership has been keen to have Rahul Gandhi participate in a joint rally of leaders of   Secular Progressive Alliance in Salem on April 15. DMK picked Salem to showcase secular alliance as PM Modi has visited the place three times and three more visits are in the pipeline. Unfortunately for the DMK, Rahul refuses to take any call from Arivalayam. Keen to solve the imbroglio, DMK bosses have put party MP and actor Kamal Hasan to work on Rahul to attend the   Salem rally.  So far the only high profile leader who has shared a public forum with DMK Chief M K Stalin is Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar who was in Chennai to release the party manifesto. Both Stalin and DKS had a joint campaign on April 11 in Chengalpattu.  It is not just Rahul Gandhi who has not officially endorsed the DMK-Congress alliance. Even his close aide Praveen Chakravarty has been found speaking out against the tie-up and how the Congress deserved more than two dozen seats it had been given. It is being said a section of TN Congress leaders apparently favoured a tie-up with actor Vijay’s TVK. Party sources said Rahul has been so miffed with the DMK that even in Puducherry when both he and Stalin were there in the Union Territory   around the same time, they did not deem it fit to either meet up or hold a joint rally. It remains to be seen if Kamal Hasan succeeds in breaking the ice.

DMDK’s Premallatha, wife of late film star Vijayakant, did not let the grass of grief and widowhood grow under her feet. Even during the last months of his illness and inability to appear in public, the wife just eased into the Captain’s role and efficiently took over the DMDK seamlessly …bringing Nari power and strategy to keeping the DMDK alive. Even during the Maha Shivratri Isha conclave where political heavyweights confabulated, she claimed she had come to meditate. Meditate, she did …and found the voice of “Guru”, headed straight to the DMK camp and posed with Stalin. Now firmly in the seat of power, she knows when to bow and scrape, when to use her bow and quiver. She has turned into a popular viral content. Recently at a temple, she tried to break a coconut …going at it hammer and tongs. It turned out to be a hard nut to crack…Premallatha is full of confidence about cracking alliance nuts; when Stalin mentions her name, she stands up and waves. But when Thol Thirumavalavan included her in his honours list, she nodded curtly …this too went viral. She wears gloves when campaigning …apart from being parodied as VIP in campaign mode, memes take on creative heights like the film title The Devil Wears Prada, social media have some harmless fun about her covered hands ..it could be just a sunscreen from tanning. But the widespread debate: Is Premallatha adding value to the DMK block? Or is she a celebrity by osmosis to Stalin? Even as a Nari Shakti Bill is about to be passed, women of TN have long proved that they have immense strategic Shakti.

Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Manisha Mhaiskar, cited an aberration from 2023—a Shiv Sena minister preferred a male colleague over her to head his department—reviving the debate over gender bias. While she termed it as an exception, discrimination across gender and caste was more entrenched under the Congress-led regime two decades ago. A stark example was Chitkala Zutshi, an upright officer who served as ACS Finance and Home but was overlooked for Chief Secretary’s post despite merit. The slight was compounded by an insensitive remark by a female colleague on her last day over her penchant for integrity over money, power during IAS service. And yet, Zutshi’s post-retirement career underscored her resilience: as member of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority and later Electricity tribunal judge in Nagpur, she delivered dispassionate quasi-judicial orders. These safeguarded the Nag river from being snuffed out and directed Maharashtra to clear 2.5 lakh agricultural pumpset backlog on pain of penalty of Rs 25,000 for each non-compliance case. Her tenure followed that of A K D Jadhav, another overlooked candidate for Chief Secretary, known for initiating near-free medical insurance for Mumbai’s 50,000-strong police force. Similarly, Praveensingh Pardeshi continues to contribute post-retirement as MITRA CEO despite missing the top CS post. CM Fadnavis’s tenure notably reflects a shift in pairing IAS couples in complementary roles—including Abha Shukla:Lokesh Chandra, Sujata: Manoj Saunik, even Manisha and Milind Maiskar. More serious concerns persist today. “Two decades back, 10% of the babudom were efficiently functional. This has slid to a mere 2% today,” an IAS officer says. Should that be left for another day?

In a bizarre move, a day after Kerala polling, BJP leaders, a father-son duo P C George and Shaun George launched a scathing attack on the Catholic Church accusing it of working against the NDA in the assembly elections. In what seemed like an exercise to cover up for their own failure in reaching out to the Christians in the state, the Georges attacked the Church for “letting them down”. Shaun’s attack particularly surprised BJP circles in Delhi as the duo were considered far too influential and vested with a lot of importance by BJP Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrashekhar. “So why were the Georges shifting the blame on the Church that too even before May 4 poll results? Are they covering up for their lapses? Sources said if the Church went against NDA, it was only because of the way P C George has been campaigning against the Catholic priests. Son Shaun said he expected the Catholic Church to back the NDA parties for the government’s gesture of pausing the FCRA bill. Well the quid pro quo did not happen. P C George too took on the clergy for personally intervening to canvas votes for the UDF candidate in his Poojnar assembly seat; he sought to know if Church was part of the UDF. More than the Georges, what is worrying the BJP is the fate of NDA candidate from Thiruvalla –Anoop Anthony Joseph — whom PM Modi had personally endorsed as his “dedicated companion” and “right hand man”. It is felt that because of the Georges’ attack on Church and clergy, Anoop could face the heat. Besides, Anoop is also up against the son of a Catholic priest. Will PM Modi’s endorsement for the Keralam boy clinch the seat for him? Only time will tell.

Another embarrassing moment for the Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi. Two years have gone by and there is no sign of the much-needed Bhubaneswar Metro project yet. Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar has been thrown out of gear because of severe traffic congestion thus making daily commuting a nightmare. Every day there is a traffic jam from 9 am to 11 am and 5pm to 11pm. The bumper to bumper traffic around Patia Bhubaneswar has resulted in two-wheeler riders merrily using the footpath thereby making pedestrians’ lives miserable. Many shoppers say this traffic congestion is forcing them to order their stuff online. Moreover, Odiya’s are fed up hearing that Bhubaneswar Metro project is temporarily suspended and not cancelled. The outcry for the Metro project is growing. Sensing the mood of the people, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi has written to the chief minister that a cost-efficient metro train project is essential for Bhubaneswar and urban expansion. She posted on X that “Not doing the project would weaken trust in development promises”. According to her, Metros are subsidised and not built for profit, noting that, BJD government had earlier spent Rs 274 crore in the Metro project and the Majhi government chose to suspend it. The final takeaway now is Bhubaneswar Metro project’s inter-ministerial committee will now examine the project once again and a final decision will be taken soon. Urban planners say just decongesting the current roads through metro rail will not be enough, they say Bhubaneswar requires a long term multifaceted rule-based urban planning.

At the end of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal, around 9.1 mn names have been deleted from the electoral rolls, but the Election Commission has not disclosed the religious composition of those deletions. Based on its organisational assessment, the TMC claimed that 63% of the deleted names belong to Hindus and 35% to Muslims, indicating a ratio of roughly 2:1, a figure that could be politically uncomfortable for the BJP. The BJP has not questioned the accuracy of the figures but has raised questions about how the TMC accessed such data. TMC’s estimates indicate that in the first phase of the SIR process about 5.8 mn names were removed –around 4.4 mn Hindus and about 1.35 mn Muslims. In the second phase, around 550,000 names were deleted, of which 528,000 were Hindus around 97%, roughly 13,000 Muslims about 2.5%. In the third and final phase, approximately 2.7 mn names were removed with Muslim names outnumbering Hindu names — 1.75 mn Muslims and 835,000 Hindus. TMC alleged that in the process of identifying infiltrators and Rohingyas, people across communities had been subjected to scrutiny and names removed from the voter list. Some observers argued that the deletions should not be viewed solely through a religious lens but also in terms of categories. They said first-phase deletions, largely migration or duplicate entries, contrasted with the third phase where minority names formed the majority of deletions. TMC leaders have indicated in internal discussions that large-scale deletions of Hindu names could have an impact in Matua-dominated areas, where the BJP has performed strongly in the last three major elections.

The Election Commission has been quite satisfied with the kind of record polling for the General elections for the Legislative Assemblies (GELA) for Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. There was much cheer particularly for the kind of polling that was witnessed in the Union Territory of Puducherry and Kerala where Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list was carried out. Assam was excluded from SIR ahead of April 9 polls as an NRC exercise in the state is yet to conclude. Nevertheless, Assam and Puducherry surpassed their highest-ever poll-participation by recording 85.38% and 89.83% respectively. Previously, the highest poll-participation in Assam and Puducherry was 84.67% (2016 GELA) and 86.19% (2011 GELA) .  Political analysts concede that it is only natural that SIR — deletion of dead voters or bogus voters — was bound to bump up voter turnout. Inclusion of genuine voters is also known to have a positive impact on poll outcome.  However, in Puducherry it is just not SIR that boosted voting. Entry of    superstar Vijay or the TVK factor is being viewed as an incentive for voting. Though not allowed to campaign in Tamil Nadu by the DMK state machinery, it is being said Vijay still remains popular among women and youth. DMK is so rattled by Vijay’s appeal among women that it had not only been sabotaging his rallies in the state but also sent out its women workers to do door-to-door campaigns in Tamil Nadu against Vijay. The EC took firm action against the excesses of DGP and other senior police officials in TN by transferring them as it did in West Bengal after receiving complaints both from the AIADMK and the TVK.

The Congress party in Maharashtra is mocked for its ‘historic’ decision not to contest the Baramati assembly by-election for which deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar is the formidable candidate. State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal’s verbose justification for keeping away from the fray has generated more ridicule than praise. The prominent constituency in Pune district has unfailingly elected only a Pawar family member since 1967 and no exception is likely to take place this time, too. Sharad Pawar’s parliamentary career began from Baramati. Finally, the Congress asked its candidate Akash More to withdraw from the contest, which has left 23 hopefuls in the arena, which will elect Sunetra with a thumping majority on 4 May. Even though this was crystal clear from the beginning, Sapkal decided to go ahead with announcements that the field will not be left open for the NCP (Ajit) to walk away with victory without a fight. He was expecting support from within the party but none stood for him. His selection of Akash More also smacked of the caste factor. More belongs to the Dhangar (shepherd) community, which has a sizable population in the constituency. More’s father Vijay was a sworn opponent of veteran Sharad Pawar but failed to make any difference in Baramati. Moreover, when Pawar himself declared support for Sunetra, the fate was sealed. Even then, Sapkal stuck to his stand, ultimately embarrassing the Congress party.

The BJP has identified 58 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal where it believes a swing of 1.92 lakh votes could change election outcomes. The strategy is based on an internal analysis of vote margins and voter list revisions. According to party sources, the analysis includes constituency-wise data on the vote gap between the TMC and BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, along with the impact of the SIR on electoral rolls. Professional survey agencies prepared the report. In these 58 constituencies, the total vote margin between TMC and BJP in 2024 was slightly over 3.8 lakh. The BJP estimates that shifting 1.92 lakh votes in its favour could overturn results. This requires an average swing of about 3,310 votes per constituency. Party leaders, however, said it is difficult to ensure that the entire shift comes from TMC voters. After the SIR process, about 91 lakh names were removed from the voter list. With an average turnout of 80%, analysts estimate that around 73 lakh votes may not be cast. The BJP assessment indicates that a larger share of this reduction could affect TMC’s vote base. The identified constituencies are mainly in Malda, Murshidabad, Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Kolkata. These areas were strongholds of TMC in previous elections. The report also notes that TMC has large vote margins in 114 constituencies, mostly minority-dominated, which increase vote share but do not add seats. The BJP has 35 such constituencies. In 2024, the “ineffective margin” was about 55.8 lakh votes for TMC and 11.9 lakh for BJP. A similar pattern existed in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Political scene in Maharashtra is witnessing another turmoil following news channel reports that eight of the nine Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena (UBT) attended a secret meeting with the Shiv Sena led by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde. Both sides have discounted the news promptly though the pall of suspicion refuses to disappear. The only Sena (UBT) Lok Sabha member not mentioned in the news is Uddhav Thackeray’s confidant Anil Desai. Shinde himself and his son Dr Shrikant, MP, also has described the reports as a figment of the imagination. However, such news items have been circulating ever since the BJP won the state assembly election with a landslide majority. There also have been murmurs that a large number of Sena (UBT) functionaries are eager to return to the Hindutva fold from which the party has distanced itself. Only a few days ago, a couple of Sena (UBT) MPs were roasted since they attended a celebration at the residence of former Union minister of state and Sena (Shinde) MP Pratap Jadhav in New Delhi. Soon afterwards, Uddhav held a meeting at Matoshree to sense the mood within the party. Even before the aftermath of this event has subsided, the latest reports have renewed speculation about the Sena (UBT) moving towards the ruling party. The Thane meeting was said to have occurred at the residence of Dr Shrikant Shinde. According to latest whispers, some major development can happen after results of the five state assembly elections are out in early May.