Power struggle at 10 JanpathA silent but bitter power struggle is on at 10 Janpath over the seat Sonia Gandhi has to vacate. The coterie around her is working overtime to convince her that Amethi should be vacated and Priyanka fielded from there.Robert Vadra's casual comment in Lucknow the other day that ``Priyanka has the knack'' for politics and given her political insight, she should not hesitate to shoulder the responsibility of representing Amethi, has added fuel to the fire.The cotrie is comfortable with Priyanka as Rahul is too tough and hates the coterie. When the cotrie was doling out 200-plus seats to Sonia and making her the next PM, he asked them to shut up.Rahul is here to stay. Knowing their days are ended, the coterie planted stories in the media that Rahul merely waved to the crowd during the campaign and did nothing else. The fact is Rahul planned Sonia's tours while Priyanka was stationed in Bellary and Amethi.Surprise choiceThe `palace politics' at 7 RaceCourse residence of the PM sprang up a surprise: Arun Jaitley. L.K. Advani was feeling slighty guilty for not accommodating party's young sauve face in the Rajya Sabha last year. But it was Atal Behari Vajpayee who decided to take away I&B from his trusted lieutenant Pramod Mahajan and allocate it to Jaitley. So impressed was Vajpayee with by his performance during the current Lok Sabha polls that Jaitley's status of Minister of State with independent charge jolted everybody in the party.Some say that Jaitley's proximity with Brajesh Mishra and Ranjan Bhattacharya also played a key role in his becoming the flavour of the season. But before making the announcement, Vajpayee called Mahajan to tell him that he continued to be his trouble-shooter.Sangma's plansNationalist Congress Party leader P.A. Sangma's single-point programme is to eliminate the Congress from the entire North-East. The BJP is looking for a man like him there. When he called on L.K. Advani early this week, he promised that theCongress would be dislodged from Meghalya. Tariq Anwar has joined hands with him in the party and together they are to be up in arms against Sharad Pawar soon if and when he joins hands with the Congress in Maharashtra.If Sangma is unable to split the NCP parliamentary party, he may quit the MP's post and contest again from Tura - on the BJP symbol. If the TDP agrees to surrender the Speaker's post, he can be get back his favourite post.Jain new ECR.C. Jain, member, Law Commission, has been waiting to be appointed the new Election Commissioner after G.V..G Krishnamurthy retired on September 30. The Vajpayee government had processed the papers clearing his appointment well befor GVG retired to ensure that the constitutional body retains it 3-member character. But Rashtrapati Bhawan signalled the caretaker government to wait. A law officical par excellence, Jain is close to the saffron brigade from UP. Another name that figured for the key post was that of Raghubir Singh, secretary(Legislation) in the Law Ministry. However, did not find favour at the top as M S Gill belongs to the same community.New GovernorsVajpayee Govt has started short-listing the names of new governors. Sikander Bakht, G.V.G. Krishnamurthy, K.L. Sharma, J.P. Mathur, S.S. Barnala, Vishnu Kant Shahtri, B.M. Lall are among those being mentioned. Inclusion of Krishnamurthy in the list is a surprise.
