Yogi’s missing media advisors
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently hosted a ‘mango party’ for journalists at his official residence in Lucknow. While the variety of mangoes served became a key talking point during the gathering, many also took note of a new team of officials managing the event.
The coordination was led by Vishal Singh, the new director of the state government’s information department, who replaced Shishir Singh (earlier considered close to Yogi) a few months ago, along with Arvind Mishra, who recently joined as an additional director.
Both were coordinating the event under the guidance of senior IAS officer Sanjay Prasad, who is regarded as a power centre in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). As principal secretary, Prasad handles several key departments, including home and information.
The chief minister’s OSDs (officers of special duty) including Sanjeev Singh, Amit Singh and Sarvan Baghel were seen at the ‘mango party’, but what sparked speculation was the absence of Yogi’s media advisors, Mrityunjay Singh and Rahees Singh, both long-time members of his core team.
When a journalist questioned a senior official about it, the response was curt, yet revealing: “Change is the law of nature.”
Meeting at UPSC comes to abrupt halt
A recent meeting at the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) came to an abrupt halt. Senior officials of the Jharkhand government—chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police—were in New Delhi earlier this week for the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting. The committee meets to decide on promotions of state service police officers to the IPS.
But even before it could start, the meeting was suspended because the UPSC refused to recognise the Jharkhand DGP, Anurag Gupta.
Its position comes at a time of a continued standoff between the Centre and the Jharkhand government over Gupta’s appointment. While the Centre maintains he was supposed to retire on 30 April this year when he turned 60, the state has held that a DGP has a fixed tenure of two years even if he is over the age of 60. Even as the case is being heard in the Jharkhand High Court, UPSC maintains that it cannot recognise an acting DGP as a full-time DGP, and therefore, the meeting could not go ahead.
‘Rajput unity’ dinner sparks unease in UP BJP
Nearly 40 Rajput (Thakur) MLAs in Uttar Pradesh recently gathered for a dinner at a five-star hotel in Lucknow under the banner ‘Kutumb Parivar’. It was organised by BJP MLA Ramveer Singh from Kundarki and BJP MLC Jai Pal Singh Vyast.
The aim ostensibly was to project unity among Thakur leaders in the state. The name ‘Kutumb’ is derived from a WhatsApp group of Rajput MLAs which is a few months old.
A group member said while Ramveer and Jai Pal hosted the dinner, it was planned by Samajwadi Party (SP) rebels Abhay Singh and Rakesh Pratap Singh. Since joining the group, they have been trying to bring Thakur leaders from across parties together. The dinner held recently, however, was attended only by BJP MLAs, SP rebels and Independents. Also absent was CM Yogi Adityanath, who too is a Thakur.
Still, this gathering of Thakur leaders caught the eye of the state BJP leadership, which brought it to the attention of the party high command.
According to sources, UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary did not approve of a gathering to promote ‘Rajput unity’ at a time when the Opposition in Uttar Pradesh has been targeting the Yogi government of being a “Rajputon ki sarkar” (a government of Rajputs), while projecting itself as representatives of the ‘PDA’ (Pichhda, Dalit & Alpsankhyak).
Eknath Shinde’s run
There have been several instances of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde making his staff, security and even reporters jump through hoops with his overloaded, erratic schedule and late hours. Last week, he made them run, literally.
Shinde was inaugurating the ‘Thane Varsha Marathon – 2025’, organised by the Thane civic body. He reached the spot in his crisp white safari suit to flag it off. As the sound of the whistle rang out, he took everyone by surprise by starting to run.
The Shiv Sena chief ran a good 100 metres and his security and personal staff all ran with him. Their instruction, after all, is to closely tail the leader at all times.
Videographers and photographers who were thought at first that this was a photo op also started running alongside Shinde, trying their best to record the moment, though shaky on their cameras while in motion.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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