Delhi Confidential: Dress Code

WHEN PRIYANKA Gandhi Vadra, the AICC general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, called some Congress leaders from the state to discuss the party’s “future” in the state the other day, among those who attended were Ram Lal Rahi, who was an MP last in 1991. He was a minister of state in the P V Narasimha Rao government. And then there was 87-year-old Mohsina Kidwai. And one gets to hear that most of the suggestions by the leaders too were tried, tested and failed, like divide the party organisation into multiple zones, empower district presidents, trim the committees, appoint leaders who are accessible to workers and strengthen block and booth committees.

Exit Time

WITH ASSEMBLY elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana round the corner, many of the Congress leaders are now wondering who all will exit the party and join the BJP. The buzz is that as many as four Jharkhand Congress MLAs are in touch with the BJP. One gets to hear that a former Jharkhand Congress president too could be on his way out. There is also speculation surrounding a big leader from Uttar Pradesh, who is also a permanent resident of Mumbai.

No Room

NATIONAL INSTITUTE of Technology in Srinagar was closed on August 4, just before scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, on the state administration’s advice. There is no intimation of when the institute will reopen. Apparently, the HRD Ministry, in wake of this uncertainty, had briefly considered sending the outstation students of NIT Srinagar to other NITs. However, the idea was dropped immediately once the ministry realised that there is no room for such adjustment since all centrally-run institutes have had to admit more students this year to accommodate the 10 per cent quota for EWS.