At the oath-taking ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru, many Congress leaders, including former Union ministers and chief ministers, had to give up their front-row seats to opposition leaders. Those in the second row were hurt. Some asked if their name and political contributions were less than the ones sitting in the front row. One leader replied, “Brother, even if you combine all our work, it would still go to Congress’ account. All the opposition leaders are like Tulsi leaves, a favourite of Lord Narayan.” Another leader quipped, “Make us banana leaves instead, at least we’ll be useful while eating.”
A deleted text
A bureaucrat has been working in Rajasthan for the past 27 years but he never got to live in Jaipur. On 22 November 2022, he got posted to the highest echelons of the education department in the capital. But the bureaucrat’s heart is set on working in the interiors of the state. He wrote a message in a civil servants’ group that he should either be suspended or fired and if that’s not possible then he should be killed. He wants relief somehow. The officer later deleted the message and the screenshots of it are difficult to find.
Cornered by all
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will reach New Delhi on 26 May for a NITI Aayog meeting. She is upset with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. She is not meeting the PM personally, nor has she asked for an appointment. The CM is yet to hear from the Centre regarding the extension of her secretary’s term, which is ending on 31 May. Her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, is being investigated by CBI. And after the Karnataka election, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary of Congress has been giving statements against her almost every day. That’s why Mamata didn’t go to Bengaluru. Let’s see what she will do in Delhi.
Also read: For Congress’ Karnataka victory, don’t just credit Bajrangbali, vanar sena also did the job
IAS Week pressure
After a long hiatus, Uttar Pradesh is abuzz with the preparations for IAS Week, an annual meeting of bureaucrats in the state. CM Yogi Adityanath has to approve the arrangements to make the gathering of the most powerful officers useful. Will there be the traditional dinner of the governor and chief minister? Will the discussion be on the grievances of the officers, or on the development and problems of the state?
In the Akhilesh Yadav-led government, there used to be a cricket match between the Chief Minister-11 and IAS-11. But in Yogi’s term, only once has it been followed. Now we have to see what this year’s IAS Week is going to be like.
Promising leader
Sunil Bansal, the strongest, undisputed and successful state minister of UP BJP, is again in the news. Bansal is called the scientist of social engineering in UP. He is aware of the leaders of each Lok Sabha seat and their capabilities. That’s why he is in-charge of the mass contact campaign starting from 30 May in seats lost by the BJP. He was the main strategist of the party’s success in UP from 2014 to 2022 and he did new experiments for the expansion of the Sangh. Bansal was made the national general secretary of the party in August 2022 and in-charge of West Bengal, Telangana and Odisha. However, some party leaders are sceptical about his new role.
Not invited
Throwing tantrums after getting an invitation and being restless without it—this is common with wedding invites. But now, this is happening in politics as well. AAP and BRS were not invited to the swearing-in by Congress in Bengaluru. BSP leader Mayawati, Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy also didn’t get the invite. After the Congress won the election in Karnataka, the leaders of these parties were saying they would be obligated to attend the ceremony. Now they must be wondering why they were not invited.
Tangled opposition
CM Siddaramaiah’s swearing-in ceremony has cleared up one thing about Congress. The party used to ask all opposition parties to unite against BJP but now it is adopting the strategy against some opposition parties as well. These include BRS, AAP, BSP, BJD and YSRCP. However, when it comes to the Left, the party is a bit confusing. The leaders of the Left parties were invited for the ceremony but Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan wasn’t.
Long stretches of law
Why was Kiren Rijiju removed from the Ministry of Law & Justice? There are various speculations in BJP but nobody has a satisfactory answer. A senior leader in the party says that before we question why Rijiju was removed, one should know why Ravi Shankar Prasad and Sadanand Gowda were shunted out.
Nowhere to go
The BJP leaders who were on election duty in Karnataka are now battered after the party’s defeat. Those who had bigger responsibilities are more restless. The office bearers of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, who were in Karnataka, are being jokingly advised by the party people that it is not auspicious for them to travel to these three states till December. Why only December? That is for another time.
The Uttarakhand question
These days, the central office of the BJP is crowded with people from Uttarakhand. Why? There can be a reshuffle in the state cabinet. When will it happen? Will it happen after consultation with central leaders? Can’t Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami do it himself? Whose name will be picked? Why wasn’t it picked last time? Who has contacts with whom? Hearing so many questions can get irritating but these are the voices being raised at the BJP office.
Bharat Agrawal is Executive Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and a columnist.
By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar, edited by Ratan Priya.