Eyeing Return

Mohan Gopal, Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies, is becoming the eyes and ears of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. And literally so. On Friday, the Congress fielded some of its OBC and Dalit faces to take on Narendra Modi. They included Union minister Vayalar Ravi, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Arun Yadav and AICC secretary K Jayakumar along with Ajay Maken. They defended the “Modi is a fake OBC” claim made by Gujarat leader Shaktisinh Gohil. Mohan Gopal was almost inconspicuously standing behind mediapersons at the AICC conference hall, attentively watching — and probably evaluating — the Congress leaders’ performance.

NOT-SO-TWEET

Political rivalries seems to be spilling over to social media as well. Actor Anupam Kher Friday evening tweeted, claiming that AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had “unfollowed” him on Twitter. “Arre wah! Just discovered Shri@ArvindKejriwal ji has unfollowed me. Chalo good luck to him.:),” his tweet read. Kher’s wife Kirron is the BJP candidate in Chandigarh, pitted against AAP candidate and actor Gul Panag.

TAKING POTSHOTS

In the complaint to the Election Commission against Rahul Gandhi for making an inflammatory speech at Solan, in which he said “if BJP comes to power, 22,000 people will be killed”, BJP MP R Ramakrishna took potshots at the Congress leader, saying it was a threat of “serious dimensions”, which should not be taken lightly. “One is at wit’s end to comprehend how such an accurate figure has been arrived at by this contemporary Nostradamus. Judging by his past utterances during the Muzaffarnagar riots, there is a possibility that he has contacts with Intelligence agencies who feed him with such forecasts. If so, the nation has got a right to be informed of such a grim prospect,” wrote Ramakrishna. The complaint led to the EC issuing notice to Rahul for violation of the model code of conduct.