George one up, for now

At one point it seemed that Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had won the battle for supremacy in the Samata Party. But Defence Minister George ...

At one point it seemed that Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had won the battle for supremacy in the Samata Party. But Defence Minister George Fernandes has got his own back on Nitish. He managed a ministerial berth for RJD dissident and Koeri leader Nagmani in the recent Cabinet reshuffle at the cost of denying Nitish loyalists and also prominent Koeris Renu Kumari and Manje Lal. Nitish is believed to be seething with rage at the humiliation and Samata circles are bracing themselves for another battle between the two groups in Bihar. Nitish has another cause for anger. The PMO recently bequeathed total autonomy on the Railway Board, giving it the freedom to take decisions without prior clearance of the Railway Ministry. It8217;s a big blow for Nitish whose powers as Railway Minister stand curtailed. What makes it worse is that this is the first time that the Board has been given such sweeping powers. Nitish loyalists are blaming Fernandes for the move. It8217;s another nail in the Samata Party8217;s coffin.

Kissa kursi ka

The BJP is also bleeding after the Cabinet changes. Party stalwart from Madhya Pradesh Kushabhau Thakre is hopping mad that his protege, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, was denied a ministerial post. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy PM L K Advani are both believed to have agreed to his induction till MP chief ministerial aspirant Uma Bharati got wind of it. She blew into town and threw a tantrum at Advani, threatening to pull out of the MP campaign and go off to Kedarnath. Chauhan was hastily dropped and Uma8217;s choice, Prahlad Patel who belongs to her Lodh caste, was sworn in instead. All this has only created more discord in the MP unit of the BJP, already deeply divided between the Thakre faction and the Uma camp.

Gehlot in, Diggy out

The ebb and flow of political fortunes in the Congress is truly remarkable. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh was the hero of the first Congress chief ministerial conclave in Guwahati last year. This year, at the third such gathering, he seemed to be in the doghouse. This media-friendly leader kept a low profile and hardly talked to journalists. Puzzled correspondents were told that he was unwell but party sources said that he was down in the dumps after Sonia Gandhi obliquely ticked him off for his quasi Hindutva campaign on cow urine, etc. In contrast, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, who8217;s been virtually written off in the November Assembly elections, was riding high. Sonia mentioned him by name and praised his schemes and his drought-relief efforts at her press conference. Her comments won Gehlot a round of applause from his colleagues. Journalists were surprised to find that this media-shy CM was very visible during the conference, always ready to talk to correspondents. His body language seems to have changed after he successfully scuppered the VHP8217;s trishul campaign by putting Praveen Togadia in jail for a few days.

Not so united in UP

The formation of an anti-BJP Front in Uttar Pradesh is not as easy as it looks. Soon after Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh8217;s exit from the Union Cabinet, leaders of four anti-BJP and anti-BSP parties met at the VIP guest house in Lucknow to chart their strategy. The meeting was attended by Ajit Singh, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Kranti Dal chief Kalyan Singh and Congress general secretary Naval Kishore Sharma. But that was as far as the cooperation went. Sharma refused to be a part of any delegation going to meet Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri if Kalyan Singh was going to be in it.

Unfortunately, an alternative government in Lucknow is going to need RKD8217;s four MLAs. Also, an electoral alliance in western UP will be formidable only if all the four parties join hands. As a compromise, both Mulayam and Kalyan Singh stayed out of the delegation. The SP was represented by Amar Singh and Sharma and Ajit Singh made up the other two members. Clearly, there are many obstacles ahead and this is what the BJP is banking on. An SP-RLD-RKD-Congress coalition will prove formidable in the BJP8217;s last fortress in UP, the western belt.

MPs head for Pak

Now that a delegation of Pakistani parliamentarians has come and gone, Indian MPs are planning a return visit. Rajya Sabha MP and eminent journalist Kuldip Nayyar is tying up the trip and he hopes to take a team across by mid-June. Apparently, there is a rush for inclusion with MPs from various parties expressing a desire to visit Pakistan in this era of glasnost. The list has yet to be finalised but it is likely to include film actress Shabana Azmi, writer Kartar Singh Duggal and Urdu editor Shahid Siddiqi. All three are Rajya Sabha MPs. The delegation will visit Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. However, it8217;s not certain whether they will get to meet President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali. The request will be made but given the fact that the Pakistani team was not granted official meetings 8212; and even Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not meet the MPs 8212; the Indian parliamentarians may not receive any extras from the government in Islamabad.