The Bhagwat-Advani deal over Narendra Modi

Double impact in Bihar...

Ajay Maken and the Tweety Bird...

Kissa Kursi ka...

Mein Azad Hoon...

All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup...

Amravati in Maharashtra is set to see Narendra Modi getting the official nod as the BJP’s ‘prime ministerial candidate’.

The top RSS leadership is currently meeting in the town to take stock of the political situation. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other bigwigs, who consulted Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, L K Advani and Rajnath Singh, feel that an early announcement of Modi’s candidature would help the BJP if the UPA goes ahead with early polls. 

Bhagwat is said to have won Advani over by extending an olive branch. He reportedly agreed with Advani’s formulation that the BJP-NDA’s future roadmap should be named the ‘Atal model’ instead of the ‘Gujarat model’. 

Advani had reportedly argued that singling out a particular state would amount to slighting the ‘Shivraj Singh Chauhan model’ of success in Madhya Pradesh or the ‘Raman Singh model’ in Chhattisgarh.

Please click on NEXT to find about the Congress's double impact in Bihar...

The Congress is treading cautiously in Bihar with an eye on future alliances.

The party’s strategists are trying to work out a post-Lok Sabha poll alliance with Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and at the same time keep Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan in good humour too.

The rationale is to somehow keep at least 30 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats out of the BJP-NDA’s kitty. Congress managers say their task is difficult but not impossible, pointing at the tacit understanding with two warring regional players, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati, in Uttar Pradesh.

Please click on NEXT to read about Ajay Maken's Tweety Bird...

There is huge disquiet in the Congress over Digvijaya Singh’s tweets. Officially the Congress has not fully endorsed what the AICC general secretary had posted on Twitter. ‘Flip side of this. Amit Shah promises a GrandTemple at Ayodhya. Modi addresses Bihar BJP workers and asks them to teach Nitish a lesson. Next day Bomb Blasts at MahabodhiTemple at Bodhgaya. Is there a connect? I don't know. ALLOW NIA TO COMPLETE INVESTIGATION PLEASE!’

Yet, nobody has come forward so far to disown his remarks either. Party leaders say the new AICC media department chief Ajay Maken does not carry enough weight to take on Digvijaya.

In the past, Maken’s predecessor Janardhan Dwivedi had built a reputation of taking on Digvijaya and quickly dubbing the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister’s controversial remarks as not reflecting the official party line.

Please click on NEXT to read about Motilal Vora and Kissa Kursi Ka!

The recent AICC reshuffle has led to a paucity of rooms at 24, Akbar Road, the Congress party’s headquarters in New Delhi. Secretary-level officials were therefore forced to borrow chairs from neighbouring rooms to hold meetings or entertain guests.

But this has also led to some sort of law and order problem. Veteran Motilal Vora, who looks after 24, Akbar Road inventories in his capacity as party treasurer, has instructed karmacharis to keep the rooms locked if the concerned secretary is not “IN.”

Please click on NEXT to read about Ghulam Nabi Azad's freedom...

Union health and family welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has a habit of staying away from Nirman Bhavan that houses his ministry’s office. 

Earlier, Azad’s personal staff had a readymade excuse to explain away the minister’s absence by saying ‘Saheb is in Hyderabad/Chennai’. Azad after all was a frequent visitor to the two southern cities in his capacity as the AICC point-man for Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

But in the recent AICC revamp, Azad had been divested of party work. But still there is no sign of him at Nirman Bhavan.