Lucknow Nama: Not a first

Most IPS officers see the appointment of Atul as new DGP,on the order of the EC,as justice done to an upright officer. On August 31 last year,TV channels had reported his appointment as DGP following the retirement of Karamvir Singh. He was flooded with congratulatory messages and telephone calls. Within an hour,however,the government said that it had,actually,decided to give additional charge of DGP to the then DG of PAC R K Tiwari. For Atul,the wait of a little over four months has been worthwhile.

Once bitten,twice shy

The squabble over Mayawati’s former family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha’s induction has stalled the entry of some other tainted men in the BJP. Among them are sacked minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi and jailed MP Dhananjay Singh. The BJP had almost decided to give the party ticket to Tripathi. State party secretary Pankaj Singh and MLA Seema Dwivedi had met Dhananjay Singh in Jaunpur jail and its was decided to field his wife Jagriti from Jaunpur Sadar and his brother Jitendra Singh from Malhani. Now,the BJP is doubly cautious.

Shy Somaiya

BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya has gone incommunicado since the storm broke over Kushwaha’s induction. He does not even attend his calls. He was in Lucknow on Friday but stayed at an undisclosed place and didn’t even visit the state BJP headquarters. For the past several months,Somaiya had been busy digging up dirt against Chief Minister Mayawati and her government,a task for which party president Nitin Gadkari had handpicked him. On December 31,he had released names of several companies,saying these had been used by Kushwaha to launder hush money. He even submitted details of these companies to CBI,and the agency said it found his information useful. Now,Kushwaha has requested Gadkari to keep his BJP membership in abeyance until he clears his name in the NRHM scam,but Somaiya is yet to be seen,or heard.

Armed with promises

Social Welfare Minister Indrajeet Saroj has an unusual ”achievement’’ to his credit,and he is making a unique promise to his voters. At a public meeting in Kaushambi last week,he said that people from all castes and communities were given arms licenses like revadis (sweets) during his tenure over the last five years. He knew that still hundreds of applications were pending,but assured that if the BSP returned to power,all of them would be given arms licences. This,when the Election Commission has expressed its concern over the large number of arms licences issued in UP in the last three months.

In Demand

Ever since the Congress gave Priyanka Gandhi’s name to the Election Commission as one of its star campaigners,candidates and their representatives visiting the party headquarters have been making inquiries about her tour programme. They are also putting in requests for a visit by Priyanka to their constituencies. Sources said the party had not yet received her tour programme,but she was unlikely to travel beyond Amethi and Rae Bareli. For this reason,the state Congress unit is not even keeping a record of such requests. In fact,it is not keeping a record of requests for Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi either,because “everyone wants them’’. Requests for campaigning by Digvijaya Singh,Rita Bahuguna Joshi,PL Punia,union ministers and other leaders are,however,duly forwarded to each one of them.