Power Play

Home Secretary R K Singh wants everyone to know that till his very last day in office,only he would be the boss in the Home Ministry

Home Secretary R K Singh wants everyone to know that till his very last day in office,only he would be the boss in the Home Ministry. He has tried to ensure that his designated successor Anil Goswami,who has been working in the ministry as OSD for over a month as he waits to take charge at the end of this month,does not become an alternative power centre. At the recent meeting of chief ministers at Vigyan Bhawan,Goswami was initially meant to be seated on the dais,alongside Singh. But his seat was changed,apparently on Singhs insistence,and moved to the audience rows. On one previous occasion as well,Singh had done something similar to assert his primacy. Before the trip to the US last month,Singh had issued an order saying policy decisions should wait for him to come back.

UNITY MOVES

WHILE the faction-riven BJP has been dominating the headlines,the Congress is quietly trying to get its act together in Madhya Pradesh where the party is splintered into several groups. In the past few weeks,there have been several closed-door meetings of party stalwarts from the state to sort out their differences and put up a united front in the Assembly elections slated towards the year-end. Those attending these meetings include Kamal Nath,Digvijaya Singh,Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kantilal Bhuria. Kamal Nath is said to be the chief peacemaker in the latest initiative. Incidentally,Bhuria,a Digvijaya Singh protege,has been targeting both Kamal Nath and Scindia in the meetings convened by Rahul Gandhi.

POLL PANGS

ASSEMBLY elections in Chhattisgarh is yet to be announced,but that has not stopped the Congress from knocking on the doors of the Election Commission seeking free and fair election in the state,especially in the Maoist-hit Bastar region. It is not the fear of Maoists. Rather,the Congress is apprehending that the ruling BJP government might rig polls in Maoist areas. A Congress delegation met the Election Commission on Friday demanding that cameras be installed in polling booths in Naxal-hit areas and GPS trackers are fitted to electronic voting machines which would be ferried by helicopters to polling stations to ensure that the EVMs have actually reached the booths.

PARIVAR ISSUES

NOW that the trouble within the BJP is over,at least for the time being,party leaders are trying to find out the understanding that was arrived at between RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and senior leader L K Advani whose resignation earlier this month had triggered a major crisis. Party president Rajnath Singh had a luncheon meeting with RSS number-two Bhaiyyaji Joshi who was in Delhi on Thursday. Since the RSS hand in resolving the crisis had become more than apparent,party leaders are wondering whether the RSS would continue to play a more active role in the BJP in the run-up to the elections. Bhagwat is slated to be in Delhi early next week and there are talks of a meeting scheduled with Rajnath Singh and Advani to paper over the cracks that have become all too visible.