Fly on the wall

JD DividedThe fight in the Janata Dal United is finally out in the open. While most BJP ministers including Prime Minister Atal Behari...

JD Divided
The fight in the Janata Dal United is finally out in the open. While most BJP ministers including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani were present at Ram Vilas Paswan8217;s Iftar party, most of his own party bigwigs were absent.

Civil Aviation Minister and JD U president Sharad Yadav, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar were to attend the meeting. Paswan told curious guests that his three colleagues would show up at his next Iftar party for the Dalits and backwards.

The BJP is projecting Paswan as Bihar8217;s chief minister candidate in the event of JD U raising objections to the BJP8217;s own nominee. Sharad, Nitish and Fernandes are naturally upset. Paswan has conveyed to them that if his supporters are denied party tickets, he could even contest the polls under the banner of Dalit Sena a non-political outfit he nursed for long.

Fit and trim
After a gap of almost 8 months, Vajpayee is back in the garden for morning walkswith his pets. He is also particular about his diet and is off everything that adds to his weight. He has lost four kg in a month. He now finds time to read books not just files.

Sorry, try again
Sonia Gandhi8217;s decision not to give Rajya Sabha tickets to those who lost the recent Lok Sabha polls has dashed the hopes of many aspirants.

Her confidants, Arjun Singh, Natwar Singh and M.L. Fotedar, will not fall into this category as none of them contested.

Karan Singh8217;s supporters are saying that he falls into a different category as he quit his RS seat to contest against Vajpayee and should be nominated from Delhi. Ajit Jogi, K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, R.K. Dhawan and Meira Kumar will find the going tough.

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Disinvesting Jaitley
Before taking charge of the Disinvestment department, Arun Jaitley decided to dispose of all his property in real estate except the house in Kailash Colony where he still stays. He intends to put the money in RBI bonds for his monthly expenses as he does notwant to return to active law practice.

Jaitley wants to work whole-time for the party even when the party is not in power. The disinvestment department is not a bed of roses. His own ministerial colleagues who will lose control of the PSUs under them, are vehemently opposing disinvestment.

Situation vacant
If Sonia Gandhi is looking for a competent leader to handle the media department in place of Pranab Mukherjee, the BJP is also on the look-out for a professional. After Kanchan Gupta moved to the Prime Minister8217;s Office, the BJP has been frantically searching for a new face. Among those sounded out include A. Surya Prakash, a senior journalist who was in the fore-front of Sonia8217;s foreign-origin campaign.

Coincidence!
It could be a coincidence but a strange one. All the three Muslim Union ministers the BJP has had Sikander Bakht, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Syed Shanawas Hussain are married to Hindus.