Dynasty Prevails

Having fielded Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee from the Diamond Harbour seat in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress seems to have accepted the reality of dynastic politics. After fielding Kamalapati Tripathi’s granddaughter Indira Tiwari from Varanasi, the party has also fielded Parvez Ahmed, grandson of former president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, from Barpeta in Assam.
NOT OUT YET

Even as the Congress high command on Friday chose to replace sitting MP from Anandpur Sahib Ravneet Singh Bittu with Ambika Soni, there is an interesting sidelight to the decision. Bittu, who had earlier been declared candidate from the constituency, had begun his campaign in right earnest, sending emails about his campaign on a daily basis to the media. Ironically, even on Friday journalists received two emails from his office about his campaign. There are also indications that if Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari does not contest again from Ludhiana due to health problems, Bittu could be fielded from there.
Lost in transit
It took the CBI more than two weeks to register the preliminary enquiry into the HAL-Rolls Royce deal as the reference made by the Defence Ministry to CBI was lost in transit. The initial complaint from the ministry instead of coming to the CBI headquarters landed at the agency branch in Bangalore, which caused the delay. The Bangalore branch of CBI, it is learnt, did not inform the headquarters even as senior officers frantically went looking for the complaint. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha later pulled up his officers in Bangalore for the delay.
CALLED OFF
The Ministry of Home Affairs has called off the meeting on encounter policy, scheduled to take place next week. The ministry had convened the meeting of state chief secretaries and DGPs on March 26 to discuss a national policy in cases of encounter deaths. However, after several states expressed inability to appear for the meeting citing compulsions relating to the Lok Sabha elections, the ministry deferred the meeting until after elections.