Lucknownama

Family ties

Rajaram Pandey,who was dismissed from the ministry last month for promising roads as smooth like Hema Malini’s cheeks,seems to have realised his mistake. He met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav at the party office on Saturday,but not to plead for his reinduction in the ministry. Instead,he advocated the case of his son Sanjay Pandey for the party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election from Pratapgarh. Being a Brahmin,Sanjay would be a strong candidate,Pandey argued. Further,he assured that Sanjay wasn’t like him and would never let the party down.

To each his own

A dharna against corruption in the UPA government,which the BJP staged in Lucknow on Saturday,brought out the differences among senior leaders. Party general secretary Varun Gandhi and state president Laxmikant Bajpai led the dharma,but several senior leaders stayed away. The party’s national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,who was in the town,confined himself to the VVIP guest house. Kalraj Mishra,Vinay Katiyar,state vice-president Rajvir Singh,general secretary Ramnath Kovind,too,stayed away. However,all of them attended the meeting of the party’s core committee later in the day.

Playing to the audience

BJP leaders often accuse the SP government in the state and the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre of appeasement of Muslims. But at the Swabhiman Rally held at Deochara in Aonla Lok Sabha constituency in Bareilly district on May 1,party leaders,including Varun Gandhi,avoided any talk of Muslim appeasement. The reason was the presence of a good number of Muslims. They had come to the rally because of SP rebel Devendra Kumar Kashyap,who joined the BJP that very day and who the BJP is planning to field in the Lok Sabha election. But Varun and other leaders went back to the theme of Muslim appeasement at a dharna organised in Lucknow on Saturday. For,unlike Deochara rally,there were no Muslims at the dharna in Lucknow.

Runs in the family

Although his family members claim that he is only a lawyer like others in the family,BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra’s son Kapil has now started appearing in political programmes. He was present at the meeting of the party’s Brahmin Bhaichara Committee which was addressed by BSP chief Mayawati at Misra’s residence in Lucknow. Misra chose the occasion to introduce his son to some mediapersons. On Saturday,Kapil accompanied his father to Khalilabad where the latter addressed a convention of Brahmins. He stood on the stage from where his father addressed the gathering.

Prank goes awry

Dimple Yadav’s name figured in the list of handicapped candidates recently selected as contractual teachers in Kannauj. In fact,she topped the list with over 94 per cent marks. The list was put up on the District Education Office notice board. Obviously,somebody had played a prank on the Chief Minister’s wife who is MP from Kannauj. Since the applications were invited online,the officials had little control over them. However,the act was taken seriously and the district authorities asked to take the help of the cyber crime cell to trace the culprit for appropriate action.