Tamil Nadu BJP workers flew to Delhi seeking the removal of Annamalai, the opinionated BJP state president. But the party high command still has faith in the former police officer, despite his poor advice in the Lok Sabha polls. Amit Shah ticked off the Tamil Nadu delegation, asking them to return to Chennai to do booth work and not travel to Delhi to complain against leaders. However, when Shah arrived in Chennai on April 10 for the expected tie-up with the AIADMK, he found its leader E K Palaniswami missing and evasive about the proposed alliance. At Shah’s press conference in Chennai, the backdrop with the NDA logo had to be hastily replaced with the BJP’s lotus symbol. At 4 pm the next day, Shah tweeted that Annamalai was stepping down as state president and that the BJP-AIADMK tie -up was back on track at 5 pm. Significantly, the new BJP state president, Nainar Nagendran, was formerly with the AIADMK. EPS made clear that he is no pushover. In fact, he even expressed doubts whether the BJP would necessarily be represented in the eventuality of an AIADMK cabinet.
Those who attended the AICC meet in Ahmedabad earlier this month, praised the organisational skills of the Gujarat Congress, headed by Shaktisinh Gohil, comparing them very favourably with previous mismanagement at the Udaipur and Jaipur sessions, when Ashok Gehlot was chief minister. Ironically, the state Congress has not demonstrated similar organisation skills on the campaign trail, with the party losing in seven consecutive Assembly elections. One reason for selecting Gujarat was to reclaim Sardar Patel’s legacy, which has been assiduously appropriated by the BJP. But the venue of the meet, Shahi Baug, which has been renamed the Sardar Patel Memorial Museum, is actually a Mughul palace where Shah Jahan once lived and with which the Sardar had no association whatsoever in his lifetime. Priyanka Gandhi’s absence was much commented upon. While it was said she had sought advance permission to be absent, an argument over a last-minute invitation to a Congressperson as a permanent invitee to the CWC was an additional reason.
Appointing Rekha Gupta, a first-time MLA, as Chief Minister of Delhi has upset the established BJP hierarchy in the Capital and left some Delhi party stalwarts noticeably unhappy. Traditionally, Delhi MPs outrank the Chief Minister. But of late, they have been kept in the shade, with the media focusing on the dynamic Gupta, who keeps photojournalists on their toes with her schedule packed with cutting ribbons, attending functions and inaugurating schemes. For some Delhi BJP MPs, the last straw was Ambedkar Jayanti at the old Lok Sabha’s Central Hall, when Gupta was seen posing next to a portrait of B R Ambedkar in the company of Speaker Om Birla, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and BJP president J P Nadda. Surely, at least the Samvidhan Sadan should be the MPs’ territory and not the Chief Minister’s.
Few are aware that Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister had promised to return South Court, the palatial villa on Malabar Hill built by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to his only daughter Dina Wadia, mother of industrialist Nusli Wadia. The building and its 2.5-acre compound lying derelict for decades is back in the news as the MEA is now planning to convert it into a diplomatic enclave. In 2001, the file was cleared by then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, with the Home Ministry, the Urban Development Ministry and the Department of Evacuee Property consenting to a long-term lease, provided the property was not exploited for commercial gain. Shortly afterwards, Yashwant Sinha became External Affairs Minister and his foreign secretary stymied the transfer.
