Delhi Confidential: Mutual Respect

Flight Rush

As the news of Dr Manmohan Singh’s demise reached Belagavi where an extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting was underway, senior party leaders scrambled to get the earliest flight to Delhi. While Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi left late night on Thursday in two chartered flights, other Congress leaders returned early Friday morning. Sources said two commercial flights were fully booked by the Congress’s Karnataka unit for the party leaders to reach Delhi on Friday and pay homage to the former PM.

Musical Chairs

Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are still two years away but the Samajwadi Party on Friday made a pre-poll promise to the state’s cultural artists and folk singers. At a meeting of the party’s cultural cell on Friday, SP leaders promised that if the party comes to power in UP in 2027, artists will be given “due honour and will also be accommodated in the government”. The SP has always shown special regards for artists, especially folk singers, who are often a part of the party’s poll campaign, performing at rallies, public gatherings and nukkad meetings. The musical performances are mostly praises of party chief Akhilesh Yadav and the work of his past government. The SP, it is learnt, has reached out to folk artists for similar performances during its upcoming ‘PDA charcha’ in every Assembly segment.