Namonitis Rises

Renuka Chowdhary is at it again. Known for her outlandish remarks recently,she said Rahul Gandhi was not a tota parrot to be replying to all media queries

Renuka Chowdhary is at it again. Known for her outlandish remarks recently,she said Rahul Gandhi was not a tota parrot to be replying to all media queries the Congress spokesperson on Friday came up with another gem directed at BJP leaders. Asked about the non-attendance of some top BJP leaders at its national-executive in Goa,she said,A strange virus called Namonitis is spreading. It is some sort of sister virus of pneumonia. Our advice to the Goa Chief Minister is that he should be careful and take effective counter measures otherwise it will affect tourism in the state. No prizes for guessing the cause of the disease.

Left Leaning

THE AIADMKs executive meeting in Chennai is being keenly watched by the CPI. The Left party has sent feelers to the AIADMK seeking support for its nominee,D Raja,for one of the six Rajya Sabha seats vacant from the state. Incidentally,CPI leaders,A B Bardhan,S Sudhakar Reddy and Raja himself are in Chennai these days to attend a party meeting. Bardhan had tried to meet AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa earlier to seek her support,but it did not materialise. The Left has 18 MLAs in Tamil Nadu and with the support of the AIADMK,the CPI nominee can be elected once again. The grapevine is that a Bardhan-Jayalalithaa meeting is likely on Saturday. The only hurdle in Rajas way is that CPI state secretary D Pandian is also eying the seat and he is said to be in the good books of Amma.

Flight AsSISTANCE

BEFORE they landed in Goa to enjoy the hospitality of Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar,BJP leaders headed for the two-day national executive were taken good care of by Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The party general secretary was the co-pilot on the flight on which a number of BJP leaders were travelling to Goa. Like any professional pilot,Rudy personally greeted each one of them and chatted with them. After the plane took off,Rudy kept announcing various kinds of information type of plane,flight route,cities going past,outside weather,and speed that is usually not heard on domestic flights.

Hitting Back

FORMER Orissa Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik,who was shown the door for lack of performance last month,is in a pro-active mode now a days. Patnaik it seems wants to make his presence felt and is picking on controversies to do so. The Congress veteran wrote to Sports Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday asking him to bring in the Sports Bill and hit out at the BCCI. Yesterday,he attacked the Orissa Chief Minister for opposing the formation of the NCTC in a detailed press release. He has argued that the BJD has failed to rise above narrow partisan considerations on issues of national security,conveniently overlooking the fact that two of the Congress chief ministers too had expressed their reservations over the NCTC.