Delhi confidential: Sonia skips the speech

CONGRESS PRESIDENT Sonia Gandhi attended the party’s well-attended public meeting against price rise in Jaipur but surprisingly did not address the gathering. The main address was by Rahul Gandhi. Some of the leaders who were on the stage saw Sonia going through a paper and making some corrections. They thought it was a copy of her speech. The organisers, however, say she was not supposed to speak at all. In fact, one leader said she was not keen to travel to Jaipur because of her asthmatic condition but her children and some leaders persuaded her to attend the rally, telling her that her absence will send the wrong message.

Prayers for CDS

BHUTAN’S King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk and his father, the fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, this week offered prayers and a thousand butter lamps at the Buddhist monastery in Thimphu for Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Services General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat, and others who lost their lives in the helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu. General Rawat had visited Bhutan several times, including his first private visit as a student in the early 1970s. His last visit to Bhutan was for three days in April 2017 after he took over as the Army Chief in December 2016.

Goa Catch?

WEST BENGAL Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s two-day visit to Goa starting Monday will take her to Benaulim, the constituency of the state’s lone NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, who had a 18-day stint as Chief Minister in 1990. Alemao had met Banerjee in Kolkata last month, shortly before the TMC supremo met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai. A source claimed that Alemao, who has also been with the Congress in the past, is likely to join the TMC once again. He had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on a TMC ticket and polled barely 3 per cent votes in the south Goa seat.