Rajnath’s second tweet

Just when the Delhi BJP thought that its former president Vijay Goel had been sidelined, the crafty politician has bagged a national role for himself. BJP president Rajnath Singh has appointed Goel head of the party’s booth management programme for the Lok Sabha elections. Coming soon after a Rajya Sabha seat, this is a bonanza for Goel, who had been unceremoniously sidelined from Delhi politics. Senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad too has gained further heft in addition to his position as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. Prasad, who used to be chief spokesperson until early last year, has been assigned to head the party’s media coordination for the elections.

Muttalik faster than DP Yadav

Pramod Muttalik’s ouster from the BJP soon after being inducted has an interesting precedent. In 2004, the Western UP strongman D P Yadav — who had a string of criminal cases against him — joined the BJP, leading to a furore. Within 3-4 days, the BJP had to terminate its association with Yadav, who had earlier been part of Mulayam Singh’s government in UP. Muthalik, however, beat Yadav’s record with his membership being rescinded within hours.

Sarkari (employees) camera

As it plans to widely use video and still cameras in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission has realized that procuring such cameras for deployment at thousands of polling stations could become a problem. To deal with this, the EC, while allowing local authorities to hire video and still cameras at market rates, has now decided to allow the use of cameras owned by government employees as well. The only catch is that the government employee whose camera would be used would get hiring charges that are a “little less” than market rates, and the employee who provides such a camera will also have to provide the services of using that camera during the poll process.

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