Delhi Confidential: Polls, Products

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a wide range of products, such as T-shirts, keychains, stickers, caps, magnets, and pens, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name printed on them is now available for sale on the NaMo app. The products also have popular slogans of the BJP printed on them, such as ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’, ‘Modi Ka Parivaar’, ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkaar’, ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar’, etc.

Southern Pique

At a time when the BJP leadership is busy inducting Opposition leaders, former Kerala state BJP chief C K Padmanabhan has expressed his dismay publicly, saying “value-based politics is giving way to power-based politics” in the party. In an interview to a Malayalam channel, Padmanabhan also criticised the CAA, saying that “no community should be excluded while granting citizenship”. He also lamented that while the BJP had decided to work for a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’, people like him will now “have to campaign for a Congress-mukt BJP as fortune seekers from that party are knocking at our door”.

HQ Stamp

On the last day of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha Baithak of the RSS on Sunday, Dattatreya Hosabale, who was re-elected as the organisation’s general secretary, expressed happiness that he was elected in a meeting in Nagpur, where the Sangh’s headquarters is located. “Last time when I was elected as Sarkaryavah (general secretary), it happened in Bengaluru. It was the first time that a Sarkaryvah was elected outside of Nagpur. While I was conscious of my new duty, I also felt that this responsibility had not come through the Smriti Mandir compound (where the memorials of RSS founder K B Hedgewar and its second chief M S Golwalkar are located) of Nagpur. The ABPS could not be held in Nagpur because of Covid. People began jokingly conjecturing that the ceremony was shifted to Bengaluru because I am from there. But I do not have such powers,” he said.