The race to emerge as a national leader and challenge Modi’s electoral supremacy in the 2024 election has now been limited between four leaders only – Arvind Kejriwal, Mamta Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and K Chandrashekhar Rao aka KCR. Out of these four, KCR seems to be most enthusiastic. He is trying hard to make a political splash at the national level, but the catch here is that he is not being able to get a proper launching pad. So he had hurriedly assembled a grand plan to emerge as a towering “farmers’ leader’. As part of this plan he invited leaders from 40 farmer organisations to Hyderabad to have a conversation. However, neither these kisan leaders nor KCR’s advisors are able to comprehend as to what these leaders will be able to accomplish when they themselves are out-of-demand after running a year-long farmer agitation in and around Delhi.
A U-turn in Jharkhand
The Election Commission’s recommendation to the Jharkhand governor to disqualify CM Hemant Soren from assembly membership has put the future of state government in danger. The Grand Alliance is worried that the BJP might poach their MLAs in another round of ‘Operation Lotus’ and come to power. And so a plan was hatched to ferry all Grand Alliance MLAs (JMM, Congress, RJD and independents) to the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, which is ruled by Congress. The MLAs were accommodated in buses and the caravan left for the airport to catch a flight to Raipur. Just then, someone remembered that Amit Shah was currently in Raipur to attend a function. The buses took a sudden U-turn. It seems they waited until Shah’s departure from Chhattisgarh to finally go there. What an apt example of avoiding the shark’s jaw at the last possible moment.
Wait until counting is over
The BJP has been making a whole-hearted attempt to pacify and woo the Jats who are still angry with the party. At first, a Jat leader from Rajasthan was anointed as the vice-president. In Haryana, BJP state president is a Jat and now the party has completed the exercise by appointing Bhupendra Chaudhary, another Jat stalwart, as party’s state president in UP too. So the big question is whether all this has been able to pacify the Jats? Responding to this, a BJP general secretary said that the real answer will be known only after the elections are over. In short, consider the Jats satisfied only when all the votes are in.
Also read: Tejashwi Yadav is playing a long innings, comes up with a ‘code of conduct’ for RJD ministers
KCR’s national ambition
The race to emerge as a national leader and challenge Modi’s electoral supremacy in the 2024 election has now been limited between four leaders only – Arvind Kejriwal, Mamta Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and K Chandrashekhar Rao aka KCR. Out of these four, KCR seems to be most enthusiastic. He is trying hard to make a political splash at the national level, but the catch here is that he is not being able to get a proper launching pad. So he had hurriedly assembled a grand plan to emerge as a towering “farmers’ leader’. As part of this plan he invited leaders from 40 farmer organisations to Hyderabad to have a conversation. However, neither these kisan leaders nor KCR’s advisors are able to comprehend as to what these leaders will be able to accomplish when they themselves are out-of-demand after running a year-long farmer agitation in and around Delhi.
Goa CM made to eat his words
During the initial phase of investigation into BJP leader Sonali Phogat’s death, the Goa police termed the cause to be “natural”. Toeing the same line, Goa CM Pramod Sawant also called it a “natural” death. However, later on, police registered an FIR under murder charges. The BJP government in Haryana took this faux-pas seriously and discussed the matter with the Union Home Minister. After this the Goa CM was reprimanded. It was not “politically correct” to term murder of a women leader — that too from BJP — as a natural death. Now people are saying that the Goa CM has sought an apology from Sonali’s kin and he has also sent a letter to BJP’s central leadership expressing regret over the “mistake”,
Also read: Operation Lantern fails to light up in Bihar. And BJP in search of a Brahmin face in UP
Real-time magician
Recently, Sonia Gandhi met Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot just a day before she went abroad for her checkup. She wanted to keep this meeting a secret from the prying eyes of media persons. To facilitate this, Ashok Gehlot — sometimes referred to as The Magician because of his profession before he entered politics— left his entire convoy near former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s house and travelled to 10 Janpath (to meet Sonia) in a friend’s car. Meanwhile, the media personnel were happily reporting that Gehlot is meeting Manmohan Singh. After meeting Sonia, Gehlot went straight to the airport. When some media guys reached Sonia Gandhi’s residence, the security personnel stationed outside her premises revealed that The Magician had already completed his meeting with Sonia. Later on, Gehlot himself confirmed to the reporters in Ahmedabad that he had met Sonia that day.
Srinagar to host G-20 meet?
It was being speculated earlier too, but now it is almost confirmed that the central government is quite serious about holding the G-20 leaders’ conference in Srinagar. It will be hosted in J&K capital to send a clear message across the world.
Bharat Agrawal is Executive Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and a columnist.
By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar and translated by Ram Lal Khanna from the original in Hindi and edited by Prashant.