Ever since BJP President Rajnath Singh has returned from the US, his ambitions know no bounds and he has become a believer in big talk and big decisions. His political advisors and astrologers have told him that “There are only two people who are qualified enough for the prime minister’s post from the BJP – one Narendra Modi and two, Rajnath himself. There are several question marks about Modi within and outside the party. There is no opposition to Rajnath’s name and there are a lot of chances that he becomes the prime minister after the 2014 elections.” Now Rajnath Singh prefers to visit temples and gurudwaras. Recently, he also visited the Kamakhya Temple in Assam and organised a yagya there. What were the intentions behind the yagya is an open secret.

Opposition parties, especially the Panther Party in Jammu and Kashmir, has been demanding Omar Abdullah to give an entire explanation of the expenditure made from the funds the Centre gives to the state and the special packages it is entitled to. That is because the Opposition parties suspect of a major scam there. But look at the coincidence: a fire starts in the Srinagar Secretariat all of a sudden and what gets burnt? All those files about the central aid – now that the evidence is gone, there will no way anyone can see what happens to all the money the state government gets from the assistance capital from the Centre.

Several big BJP leaders are looking at changing their constituencies in the coming elections. For instance, Advani wants to contest the elections from Bhopal instead of Gandhinagar. But veteran leader Kailash Joshi didn’t agree to leave that seat. So, another prominent BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has agreed to relinquish her constituency Vidisha for Advani. But Advani’s problem is that Madhya Pradesh’s former State Finance Minister Raghavji, who is mired in a sex scandal, wields considerable clout in the area. So the move may not pay off. Now Advani has his eyes set on Delhi. Sushma Swaraj may contest the elections from Haryana’s Faridabad, or from Delhi. Maneka Gandhi wants to go back to her seat in Pilibhit. Varun Gandhi wants to remain the sultan of Sultanpur, his father’s constituency. Instead of Bhagalpur, Shahnawaz Hussain wants to go to Araria from Bhagalpur. Rajnath Singh is eyeing Lucknow and Gautambudh Nagar instead of Ghaziabad. Narendra Modi, too, wants to contest the Lok Sabha elections this time and his eyes are set on some place near Uttar Pradesh – Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad or Kanpur. But he might even contest the elections from Mehasana in Gujarat.

The inability of the state machinery to deal with the calamity in Uttarakhand is there for all to see. If our able army had not come forward and worked day and night, the number of deaths and those trapped would have been much more. The moot question is what took so long for the relief work to start? Why did the Uttarakhand government not ask for help from the army before? Why, despite such a big calamity hitting the state, Bahuguna kept all sensibilities at stake and kept trying to go to Switzerland and cancelled the trip only after a dressing down by the Centre? Why did the disaster management team not spring into action despite a tour by the prime minister and Sonia. If sources are to be believed, Rahul wanted to remove Bahuguna instantly from the chief minister’s post, but Sonia is ready to give him some more time.

The tussle over who will become in-charge of the BJP in Delhi just doesn’t seem to end. When the party had decided to make Vijay Goyal the party president in Delhi, it had also decided that someone from Poorvanchal or a Bihari leader will be made in-charge. For now, three names are in the fray for the race – Kalraj Mishra, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shahnawaz Hussain. A powerful group in the BJP is opposing Kalraj Mishra’s name only because Mishra is pretty close to Sudhanshu Mittal. Vijay Goyal, Delhi party president is also close to Sudhanshu Mittal. Out of Prasad and Shahnawaz, Rajnath Singh considers Shahnawaz to be a more prominent representative of Advani camp. In such a scenario, Ravi Shankar Prasad’s name for the post is most credible.

Cinema actor and Congress Parliamentarian Raj Babbar wants to change his constituency Firozabad to some other place. Nowadays, he is considered to be an important part of the Rahul Brigade. Firozabad is the same seat from where he defeated Mulayam’s wife Dimple. In a changed political scenario, the Yadav family is hell-bent on avenging the defeat at the hands of Babbar; and Firozabad is a Yadav bastion. Akhilesh is at the helm of affairs in UP, so it might be extremely tough for Babbar to repeat his success story in Firozabad this time, too. He was actually eyeing the Fatehpur Sikri seat in Agra. But his most reliable man Raj Kumar Chaahar changed his loyalties and is now with the BJP. Chaahar had a positive influence in the constituency. Thus, the BJP wants to launch him from Fatehpur this time. In the changed scenario, Babbar wants to change his seat and is on the lookout for one. His close friend in the Congress Vinod Sharma has suggested the name of Faridabad. At present, the seat is with the Congress and Gujjar politician Avtar Singh Bhadana is the Parliamentarian from there. Sources reveal that Vinod Sharma has had Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda talk with Babbar about this. Anti-Bhadana camp is giving the logic that he should be made to contest from a seat that has a majority of Gujjars. In the past, he has also been a Parliamentarian from Meerut in UP. It is believed that Raj Babbar wants to get his intentions known to Congress prince Rahul Gandhi and will take a decision after getting a green signal from him.

Arun Jaitley is far ahead in the race for BCCI chief but is maintaining a thought-out silence about the entire matter. Jaitley believes that keeping quiet against Srinivasan may be an advantage for him and he may get the votes of Srinivasan’s supporters. On the other hand, the UPA, too, is of the opinion that the longer the IPL matters drags on, the better it is. Doing this will remove the media’s glare away from other pressing matters such as the CBI and Coalgate. Jaitley also doesn’t want that the IPL’s fire rages so high that BCCI may get burnt. Jaitley has also expressed his concern about it to his close friends. The Jaitley family is going abroad on a holiday and doesn’t want the cricketing scandal to affect his vacation dates.

After the IPL fixing scandal, the talk about a sports bill is gathering momentum. In the recent past, Sports Minister Ajay Maken has shown a lot of interest in introducing the sports bill, but Sharad Pawar and Rajiv Shukla had aggressively spoken against it. Today Jitendra Singh is the sports minister and is considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi. Like the prime minister, the sports minister is also of the belief that politicians should stay away from sports. In the current scenario, preparations are being done to introduce the sports bill again. Steps are also being taken so that the BCCI is made answerable and the PM and Rahul himself are said to be of the opinion that the BCCI should come under the ambit of the RTI Act.

It is worth mentioning here that this is the same Advani who had put obstacles in the way of Nitin Gadkari when he wanted a second tenure as the party president. In the end, Advani’s close aides were responsible for the fact that Gadkari lost the race. But in today’s changing political scenario, Advani has changed his stand against Gadkari and it seems that he has had a change of heart and intentions. That is why Advani has written a letter to the BJP president, defending that the election committee being formed for the forthcoming elections in four states should be headed by Gadkari. The language of Advani’s letter clearly indicates that there is no parallel to Gadakri when it comes to planning an election strategy and managing the same. And the anti-Advani camp is worried about the letter, because there is a feeling that Advani has played a smart game with it – he wants to turn sour the friendship between Rajnath Singh, Narendra Modi and Gadkari.

When groups of all kinds of politicians reach London to beat the heat, a majority of them become the guests of a hospitable Lalit Modi, former commissioner, IPL. But now all these politicians better watch out. That’s because it is said that Modi himself is considering jumping into politics. A few days ago, Modi arranged a dinner for a few chosen industrialists in London and told them his wish and said he would like to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Jaipur. And he has special blessings from a senior central government minister and Vasundhara Raje. Sources reveal that Modi is hopeful in the coming months, all the pending cases against him will be resolved in his favour and he will be buried, after which he will head to India. Sources also say that Modi has spoken to his personal astrologer Dev Vashisht and asked him to select an auspicious date when he can become a member of the BJP formally.