Jaya amar rahey

The alliance between the AIADMK and the Samajwadi Party hit an air pocket just a day after Jayalalithaa met Mulayam Singh Yadav...

The alliance between the AIADMK and the Samajwadi Party hit an air pocket just a day after Jayalalithaa met Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh in Delhi. Jayalalithaa, who had come to Delhi for the unveiling of MGR8217;s statue in Parliament House, was promised a private aircraft to fly her back to Chennai by the Samajwadi Party leaders. She cancelled her lunch with the media and cut short her interaction with journalists so she could reach the airport on time. Flying over Bhopal, the pilot discovered a technical snag and decided to return to Delhi. A grim- faced Jayalalithaa landed back in Delhi to discover that the large retinue which had given her a send-off at the airport just an hour earlier had disappeared and checked out of the Maurya Sheraton, where she had been staying. An irritated Jayalalithaa had to wait till the late evening to take a commercial flight back home.

May bow out

NCP chief Sharad Pawar is thinking of giving up his job as president of the BCCI before his term expires in 2008. Pawar has taken to heart Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s criticism at the recent National Development Council that the government performance in the agriculture sector is wanting and a special meeting of the NDC has been scheduled in March next year to discuss the agriculture policy. Pawar, a farmer himself, admits he has not devoted enough time to his portfolio because of his BCCI responsibilities. He is also handicapped because his three ministers of state are incapable of standing in for him.

Pawar dressing

To celebrate Sharad Pawar8217;s 66th birthday last week a book on the Maratha sugar baron was released. The expensively produced hardcover for which the birthday boy has given a long interview, is intriguing on two counts. Author Subhash Shinde writes that the war of succession in the party is a figment of the media8217;s imagination, but his book devotes only six pages to Pawar8217;s dynamic daughter Supriya, as against 30 pages to nephew Ajit Pawar. The coloured photographs of the Pawar clan in natty outfits make it seem they are posing for a society magazine. There is not a single picture of the Pawars interacting with the aam janta.

Absentee minister

Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed is in charge of South Asia, West Asia, Australia, the Pacific , Egypt and Morocco, but most of his trips abroad are to Dubai and back. He has made over 15 trips to the city in the last 12 months. With Dubai and Kerala as his priorities Ahamed, spends less than ten days a month in Delhi.

Limited facelift

After Nitish Kumar took over as Bihar chief minister JD U president Sharad Yadav thought a coat of paint at the party8217;s dilapidated Delhi office at 7 Jantar Mantar was in order. But despite the party8217;s improved finances, renovations were restricted to a small area on the first floor. It is far too expensive to renovate the colonial mansion, which has fallen on hard times, with sundry rooms and outhouses grabbed by encroachers.

The magnificent staircase on which, Yadav boasts, every prime minister of India, other than Manmohan Singh and Rajiv Gandhi once trod, remains grimy and covered with paan stains.

Wrong MP named

My apologies. It was not Rewati Raman Singh, as wrongly reported in this column last week, but Raghunath Jha from Lalu Prasady Yadav8217;s own party who screamed at him in Central Hall because his travelling companions were caught without train tickets.

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Coomi Kapoor8217;s column will resume after she returns from her vacation