A major faux pas was committed by UP CM Yogi Adityanath Nath’s media team on Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary on 12 January. Yogi’s Twitter team tweeted “Swami Vivekanand ji ke janmdin per shradhanjali (Paying our tributes to Swami Vivekananda ji on the occasion of his birth anniversary.) In private conversations, some BJP leaders even compared Yogi to Rahul Gandhi. But publically, everyone opted to keep their mouths shut. That is one more common thing between him and Rahul Gandhi, isn’t it?
‘Political nightmare’
These days, a powerful BJP leader has been losing sleep. This person is not just active in politics but he eats, sleeps and lives politics. He recently dreamt of organising a demonstration against a rival political party but without his party’s permission. He got tense while he was still dreaming. He even boarded a flight to meet a BJP head, that too without a ticket. All in the dream. Fearing action by the party high command for travelling without a ticket, he jolted out of his sleep. The nightmare was over. Now the politician is busy asking people to interpret his dream.
It’s my turn now
A BJP chief minister is sure that he will be reprimanded by the party leaders. If not now, then later. The CM recently went against the party line to dismiss the contribution of a freedom fighter, just because he was not a Hindu. The CM knows when and where he will be reprimanded. He has shared his worries with his confidants too.
Free electricity—every party’s promise
Irrespective of the consequences of distributing free electricity in the country, political parties see the promise of power in it. As the election season is approaching, everyone is shifting their focus to electricity. Many political parties seem to be copying the Aam Aadmi Party’s free electricity election promise. Congress is the first party to do so this election season. The party announced in Karnataka that if Congress comes to power, 200 units of electricity will be made free. Now BJP is carrying out a survey to find out about the political impact of the free electricity promise.
One step forward, two steps backward
BJP is trying to expand its hold in South India but in Tamil Nadu, the party is facing one setback after another. Earlier, the party’s state chief K Annamalai made things uncomfortable with his expensive watch. Now the state governor walked out of the assembly without completing his address. All this has given opposition leaders an opportunity to call BJP anti-Tamil.
Also read: Operation ‘Discipline Tharoor’ failed in Kerala. But battle against Pinarayi won’t be easy
Shashi Tharoor – the election forecaster
After a prediction made by Congress’ new ‘astrologer’ Shashi Tharoor, many party leaders are thinking of making similar predictions about the future. They think it will make their luck shine, just like it did for Tharoor. Maybe it will help them catch the party leadership’s eye. Shashi Tharoor claimed that BJP won’t be able to attain a majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and that it will fall short of 50 seats. However, Tharoor has not said anything about how many seats Congress will win in 2024. He hasn’t even revealed the basis of his prediction. But Congress leadership liked what he said about BJP and so he got a chance to shine, once again.
By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar. Translated by Ram Lal Khanna and edited by Ratan Priya from the original in Hindi.