New Delhi: In Kerala’s new UDF cabinet, superstition met something unusual: resistance from within. The UDF has historically been more susceptible to such beliefs than the Left—but the incoming cabinet appears to have decided to test the legends.
The first involves a number. No UDF minister initially wanted the official vehicle bearing the plate number 13. In Christianity, the 13th guest at the Last Supper was identified with Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus—a belief later reinforced through several cultural practices. Of the 21 ministers sworn in, none came forward to claim the car until Thursday, when IUML’s K.M. Shaji volunteered to use the 13-number car.
His Left predecessor in office, CPI minister P. Prasad, had used the same vehicle in the LDF government.
The second legend concerns real estate. Manmohan Bungalow, an official residence earmarked for cabinet ministers, carries a reputation assembled across decades: Congress’s A.J. John lost a confidence vote in 1953 after residing there; K. Karunakaran, also of the Congress, resigned as chief minister in 1977 in the fallout of the Rajan custodial torture case.
Left leaders, including Thomas Isaac and outgoing minister Saji Cherian, had occupied the bungalow without much ceremony. Now O.J. Janeesh—Congress’s youngest minister in the current cabinet, at 37—has moved in.
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Not so joint: the joint committee that couldn’t agree
A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the contentious ‘one nation, one election’ proposal last Monday was billed as a discussion with Padma Awardees, meant to build consensus. It became, instead, a demonstration of just how fractured the committee is.
JPC chairperson and senior BJP leader P.P. Chaudhary had invited the awardees alongside the media to offer suggestions rather than ask questions. When reporters pressed for more, Chaudhary relented. His colleagues did not.
P. Wilson, the DMK’s Rajya Sabha MP, seated directly beside Chaudhary, was the first to interject. “We are not here to express any opinion… It’s only an interaction. You cannot take notes and then report it,” he told journalists who had been invited by the PIB. He followed up with a pointed clarification: “The chairman’s answer does not reflect our view.”
Wilson was not alone in breaking ranks. BJP’s own Vishnu Dayal Ram also stepped back from Chaudhary’s position.
Chaudhary, visibly upset, said he was fully aware of what he was and was not permitted to say. He then spent the better part of the next hour fielding questions almost single-handedly, as his JPC colleagues filtered out of the room at frequent intervals.
The ‘unplanned’ visit that was very much planned
When Congress leaders Rajendra Pal Gautam and MP Tanuj Punia arrived unannounced at Mayawati’s Lucknow residence recently—only to be turned away for not having an appointment—the episode looked like an impulsive miscalculation.
But party insiders said it was calculated rather precisely.
According to sources, the visit was Gautam’s idea, engineered to produce exactly the story that followed: that Mayawati was unwilling to engage with other Dalit leaders. It was not his first attempt. A similar visit had reportedly been planned during a Lucknow trip in April but did not come together. This time, after lunch at a café near Mayawati’s residence, Gautam asked accompanying party functionaries to join him for the call.
Sources told ThePrint that Gautam, who previously served as a minister in the AAP government in Delhi, has been positioning himself for a larger role in Uttar Pradesh. He is believed to be eyeing both a contest in western UP and a senior organisational post in the state Congress unit, amid speculation of changes in the party leadership ahead of the elections due next year.
He has also been working the symbolism.
Party insiders credit him as the driving force behind Rahul Gandhi’s Lucknow event on the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram—and with persuading Gandhi to publicly call on the government to confer the Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram.
UP Congress chief Ajay Rai was quick to distance himself from the Mayawati episode, describing the visit as Gautam’s personal decision rather than any official party position.