Lesson from Laloo

Laloo Prasad Yadav reiterated his eternal pledge of loyalty to Sonia Gandhi when he called her the 8216;bahu of the country recently8217; ...

Laloo Prasad Yadav reiterated his eternal pledge of loyalty to Sonia Gandhi when he called her the 8216;bahu of the country recently8217; in Pune. And he added that his party had not changed its stance where she is concerned. The Bihar chief minister was, however, more sparing with his compliments when it came Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and described her as a 8216;8216;woman with an unstable mind8217;8217;. He went on to criticise all the political parties in Tamil Nadu. 8216;8216;All of the parties are trapped in the BJP net, forgetting the cause of social justice.8217;8217; Someone should tell Laloo to focus his energies on his own state before picking on others.

Conflicting Signals

So who is telling the truth 8212; Ambika Soni or Ghulam Nabi Azad? Azad calls himself a 8216;8216;king maker8217;8217; and insists that he has no interest in becoming Jammu 038; Kashmir chief minister. In fact, he even splutters angrily when party members hint that he is the future minister in public meetings.

But on Tuesday, Soni announced at a rally at Rajouri district that if Congress was voted to power, Azad would be the CM. Now everyone is trying to understand what exactly Soni meant when she made that prediction, given the fact that she and Azad are in opposing camps within the party.

Shunning The Limelight

Not all ministers enjoy the limelight. Union Food and Supplies Minister Sharad Yadav for example, got very worked up about cameramen taking his pictures at a recent press conference in Jammu. He was apparently irritated with the way the photographers kept coming between him and reporters, and instructed one to take his pictures from a corner. 8216;8216;Mein yahan baat karne aya hoon, photo khichane nahin I am here to talk not get my photo clicked,8217;8217; he admonished. The little speech had its desired effect, and a stung photographer was seen leaving the place almost immediately.

Between Father 038; Son

Are the Abdullahs cracking under the pressure of the Assembly elections? The Valley is full of rumours about a conflict that is brewing between Farooq and Omar. Abdullah Senior apparently wants his son to follow his path but Abdullah Junior has ideas of his own. Meanwhile Farooq, having announced Omar as his successor, is not taking much interest in the election meetings of the National Conference. Omar is handling all the campaigns in the state in his new avatar of party president, playing the role of the 8216;8216;future chief minister8217;8217; of Jammu 038; Kashmir. He has to juggle all this with his position in the Vajpayee government and there is a lot of pressure on him to quit the national assignment. The cracks seem to be showing!

Contributed by Satyajit Joshi in Pune and Rakesh Rocky in Jammu