Opinion Inside Track: Looks won’t kill
Partypersons wonder at the need to experiment with newcomers when seasoned hands are at a loose end
I think our cadres are galvanised and we will put up a robust performance. But this is the first step towards the build-up to 2022: Scindia (File) 
Jyotiraditya Scindia. (File)
Looks won’t kill
Party old-timers are miffed at the fielding of young, attractive faces on television debates by the Congress media in-charge Randeep Surjewala. The glam squad of the party includes Khushboo, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shama Mohamed, Kamia Malhotra and brothers Shehzad and Tehseen Poonawalla. They lack the depth and experience expected of a party spokesperson for the simple reason that none of them is a full-time politician. Recently when one of them was asked about the defection of S M Krishna, she mumbled that at 84 no one suspected that Krishna was going to defect, although admittedly he had informed his party that he was resigning. Surely she should have known that no politician ever retires! Partypersons wonder at the need to experiment with newcomers when seasoned hands such as former ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, R P N Singh and Prithviraj Chavan are at a loose end.
Mukherjee’s Move
President Pranab Mukherjee’s term ends in July, and some friends and admirers are already contemplating starting a foundation in his name to further his thoughts and philosophy. The government, meanwhile, has rejected a request from Mukherjee that he move to his old bungalow at 13, Talkatora Road, when he retires, as he considers it lucky for him. The authorities feel that Mukherjee’s former home in which he stayed as finance minister and defence minister, and is now allotted to his son, would not meet the standards of an ex-president’s house. There were also security considerations. The CPWD has again zeroed in on 10, Rajaji Marg, once home to Dr Abdul Kalam.
No difference party
Not a single legislator from Maharashtra has openly criticised Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad for beating up an Air India employee in Pune. No political party wants to alienate the Sena before the presidential election later this year. In fact, the BJP has yet to take a decision, not just about Gaikwad but also Prashant Paricharak, an Independent MLC in the Maharashtra Assembly, who was elected with BJP support. Two months ago, Paricharak had joked in poor taste about Army wives, leading to strong protests by other political parties. The BJP merely suspended Paricharak for a year and a half and instituted an inquiry, hoping that the issue would die down. In Rajasthan, the BJP has made winning the Dholpur Assembly by-election, a part of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s home base, a prestige issue. So much so that it has fielded Shobharani Kushwah, the wife of former BSP MLA B L Kushwah. The seat fell vacant after Kushwah was convicted for murder. The BJP has persuaded his wife to join the party even though she is a co-accused in a chit fund case along with her husband.
Heads will roll
There is a scare in Gujarat that BJP president Amit Shah would read party legislators the riot act. It is believed that as he has done in case of the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections, most sitting MLAs might be axed in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Among those likely to be dropped is former minister Saurabh Patel, with whom Shah does not have a good equation. Anar Patel, daughter of former chief minister Anandiben Patel, may be fielded as the candidate from a Vadodara seat, presently represented by Saurabh Patel. Although Shah has no love lost for the former chief minister, he knows that Anar’s nomination would be backed by all.
No hat-trick
Sasikala’s nephew and trusted henchman T T V Dinakaran personally spoke to Salman Khurshid and Veerappa Moily asking them to argue on behalf of the Sasikala faction before the Election Commission, to be able to retain the AIADMK’s two leaves poll symbol. The two Congress leaders appear to have been selected largely because they were both former law ministers in the Manmohan Singh government and were well acquainted with Chief Election Commissioner Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi. But Zaidi was unmoved by their arguments and froze the symbol. (Moily, in fact, left even before the hearing was over). Sasikala’s side had to settle for the symbol of a hat. Worse, the DMK leadership is furious that senior members of their alliance partner had taken the case in the first place.
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