Maya out, Mulayam-Rajnath in

The Mulayam Singh-Rajnath Singh nexus is no longer a secret. It’s being flaunted on the streets of Lucknow. Their faces peer down from ...

The Mulayam Singh-Rajnath Singh nexus is no longer a secret. It’s being flaunted on the streets of Lucknow. Their faces peer down from banners and hoardings everywhere. They appeared overnight, as soon as it became clear that Mulayam would be the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. All other leaders, especially Mayawati, have been blacked out. If, as is widely believed, the politics of hoardings contain important signals, then clearly the Mulayam-Rajnath duo is now calling the shots in Lucknow.

The axis that has emerged following the demise of the Mayawati government has split the BJP on caste lines. On one side is the Thakur lobby represented by Rajnath Singh. On the other side is the Brahmin-Bania line-up, led by Lalji Tandon and Kalraj Misra. Interestingly, Tandon, Misra and BJP’s UP chief Vinay Katiyar burned the phone lines to Srinagar, where Advani was attending the Inter-State Council meeting, to beg him for President’s Rule. Rajnath Singh didn’t bother. He had already sown up his strategy by forming a ginger group of Thakur MLAs who are threatening to pull out of the BJP if the central leadership interferes with their caste interests. The BJP first lost Kalyan Singh to caste politics. Rajnath Singh may be the next if the party does not handle him more wisely. The mandir issue can no longer camouflage the caste contradictions in UP.

Advani caught in between

It’s ironic that on the very day Mayawati and her ‘‘friends’’ in the BJP were demanding President’s Rule in Uttar Pradesh, the Inter-State Council meeting in Srinagar was discussing Article 356 and the Sarkaria Commission recommendations. With the UP BJP leaders, except Rajnath Singh, breathing down his neck to invoke the contentious provision, Advani found himself in a tight spot. As Home Minister, he had to chair the session that decided to accept the Commission’s suggestions for safeguards against Article 356. At the same time, his own party leaders were officially demanding central rule in UP. Advani tried hard to reason with them to not embarrass the Government but they quietened down only after UP Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri announced that he had invited Mulayam Singh to form a government.

Didi now looks up to Joshi

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Having tried her luck and failed with Advani, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has turned to Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi for help to get her into the Cabinet. The two shared a political platform for the first time last weekend when Mamata invited him to address an open party session in Aasansol. Joshi endeared himself completely with a hard-hitting attack on the Marxist Government in West Bengal.

This was the second time in just a week that Joshi hobnobbed with an NDA ally. A few days earlier, he shared the dais with the Akali leadership at a commemorative meeting for Longowal in Punjab. Advani was also present but it was Joshi’s first political appearance outside the party fold. Clearly, it’s his turn now to try and soften his saffron image and make himself more acceptable within the NDA.

All’s fair in love and polls

As elections draw nearer, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi’s campaign is getting more and more purple. After putting up 16,000 giant hoardings of himself on all the roads in the state, he’s now busy getting 43 lakh schoolbags made for distribution to students across the board. Twenty-five lakh have already been doled out. The rest are under manufacture. All have his mug shot plastered in front in a cunning bid to get his poll message carried to every nook and cranny in the state. The scheme is going to cost the state exchequer Rs 15 crore but who cares? All’s fair in love and polls.

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