BRING PRIYANKA FOR CONGRESS REVIVAL IS THE NEW SLOGAN

By Nora Chopra

The clamour for Priyanka Gandhi in the Congress is growing by the day. .The latest to join the chorus is Hansraj Bhardwaj once known as a retainer of Gandhi family. Bhardwaj has gone public and said that Rahul Gandhi lacks the capability and charisma to attract the masses. He can only address a crowd of fifty students and no more than that. On the other hand he has said that Priyanka who has inherited the charm of her grandmother has the charisma to attract and address the masses. He has said that Rahul card will not work and the Congress can only be revived if Priyanka comes out and goes around the county to address people as she is capable of drawing people and reviving the fortunes of the Congress. Bhardwaj, being a Brahmin, is fast emerging as the Brahmin nucleus in the Congress. Bring Priyanka is the demand of the veterans and the demand is growing. Before, Janardhan Diwedi was one of the first to say in ishara that Priyanka should become active in politics. H R Bhardwaj also echoed Diwedi’s demand for abolishing caste based reservations. Both are Brahmins.

 

SHEILA DIKSHIT AND SANDEEP ARE UPSET WITH PARTY HIGH COMMAND

 

The former Delhi chef minister Sheila Dikshit and her son Sandeep Dikshit the former east Delhi MP are extremely upset with the Congress high command over the treatment meted out to them after Sheila returned from Kerala. While the mother has refused to lead the party in Delhi or contest, the son Sandeep Dikshit who is also on the spokesperson’s panel, has suddenly started attacking the Gandhi family members and their son in law Robert Vadra. He is the only Congress spokesperson who can be seen on Arnab Goswami’s TV channel Times Now whenever he wants a quote against Robert Vadra. There is an undeclared ban on spokespersons to go to Times Now channel particularly on the Vadra issue. He has also been heard criticising Rahul openly. Sheila Dikshit is keen to get a Rajya Sabha seat either from Uttar Pradesh or Uttarakhand. But instead the seat was given to P L Punia who managed Mulayam Singh Yadav’s support triggering resentment among the Congress leaders. Sheila has so far even denied a room in AICC headquarters. She was keen to be made general secretary and occupy a room of importance in the party. But the party denied all what she wanted but instead asked her to contest in Delhi where the party itself is expecting not even the current eight seats it has today. According to an internal survey, the Congress is unlikely to get more than three seats possibly one in Babarpur, one of Nandnagri and the third may be the dalit seat of MLA Jaikishen. The Congress is likely to lose its Muslim support in Delhi. In the last assembly elections, the eight seats won by the Congress were mainly in the Muslim dominated areas thus electing four Muslim MLAs plus two MLAs Arvinder Singh Lovely and Devender Yadav also got elected with Muslim support. But going by the survey report, the Muslims are likely to shift their loyalty to AAP. They feel that the Congress is not in a position to fight the BJP.

 

KANISHKA SINGH LOSES HIS CLOUT WITH RAHUL GANDHI

 

 

Kanishka Singh, famous as Rahul Gandhi’s V George and Indira Gandhi’s R K Dhawan, is out in the cold. Kanishka has been sidelined. He no more enjoys the powers he had till a few months back. The sidelining of Kanishka is the result of the palace intrigues and infighting within Rahul Gandhi’s coterie. Kanishka has been replaced by a new set of advisers that comprise K Raju the chairman of the SC ST department of the AICC, Mohan Gopal and Kaushal Vidyarthi. Kanishka for long has been accused of misleading Rahul. But the immediate reason is said to have been the utterances of Digvijay Singh. Kanishka a Thakur by caste was said to be extremely close to Digvijay Singh. It was Diggy who brought him in the Rahul camp. With Digvijay drifting away from Rahul and his recent utterances criticising Rahul of non performance is said to be one of the reasons for his fallout. If sources within the Congress are to be believed, then Kanishka was being suspected by Mohan Gopal and others for leaking the inside news of the Rahul camp. Among the new trio, Mohan Gopal is the most important person. Raju is Rahul’s adviser on dalit politics and also his draftsman. Raju is supposed to be drafting all the suggestions that have come in Rahul’s meeting with the senior leaders of the Congress and Vidyarthi is the Hindi master. He looks after the Hindi work of Rahul.

 

PRIME MINISTER’S DEPENDENCE ON VENKAIAH NAIDU INCREASING

 

Dependence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Venkaiah Naidu is increasing day by day. The Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Naidu is very active these days. He is quietly building rapport with political parties on crucial bills. He has already started meeting the leaders of many political parties to arrive at consensus of sorts on major bills which will come up before the two houses during the forthcoming winter session of Parliament. Among those he has met or is planning to met are Malliarjuna Kharge of the Congress, Mulyam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Sudip Bandopadhyaya of the TMC. It is being said that he also plans to meet the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

 

NEW HARYANA CHIEF MINISTER SEES HOODA’S LAVISH EXPENSES

 

There were many surprises for the new Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar. When he made his maiden visit to the official residence of the chief minister in Chandigarh. Khattar was reportedly taken aback by the lavish lifestyle practiced by his predecessor Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Among the many surprising things he came upon were dozens of modhas. When Khattar inquired the purpose of these seats he was told that they were bought for the visitors so that they could attend baithaks in traditional Haryanvi style but Khattar was not convinced by this logic. Apart from the modhas, there were expensive crockery, murals crystal pieces all pointing to wasteful expenditure. Khattar was amazed to see that all the servants quarters were well stacked with kitchen. He was again told that this too was meant for the visitors. (IPA)