In his second innings at the BJP national party president Rajnath Singh is in a different avatar. Even his opponents are surprised by his proactive image. Once keeping his distance from the media, this Thakur politician has not only changed his demeanour and body language but is pretty candid with journalists on a personal level, too. Rajnath wants that in this Parliamentary elections, UP should be his calling card. Thus, he seems to be bent upon a makeover for the party in the state. On Sunday when he was about the board a flight to Bareilly on a special plane from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi airport, he chanced upon Kalraj Mishra at the special lobby, who was taking a regular flight with his family to Lucknow. Rajnath didn’t give too much importance to Mishra there. And then contrary to his usual approach, he gave a great speech at Varun Gandhi’s rally. The speech had thunder, portrayed self-confidence and was eloquent. Coming back with journalists on the flight, Rajnath left his usual approach and spoke to journalists straight from the heart. Naturally, he earned quite a number of fans on that special flight.

In a hurry, the damage control department in the Congress rose to the occasion. Ahmad Patel, P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal had a meeting with Ashvini Kumar. When the law minister was asked why he made the corrections personally, the minister innocently replied that he was merely correcting the grammar in the report. Now because Ashvini Kumar and Kapil Sibal can barely stand each other, the law minister refused to take any help from anyone.

Ever since Chautala and his sons have been to the prison, the Jats living in Rohtak, Jhajjhar and Sonipat are out in full support of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. But the leadership is not too sure about how the non-Jats perceive him. All who is left is Kuldip Bishnoi, who stands as a representative of non-Jats. Not these non-Jats have no alternative but to accept Bishnoi, no matter how many questions hover over his credibility.

The winds of elections are blowing over Odisha. Ever since Pyaremohan Mohapatra, once considered close to then chief minister Navin Patnaik and also called his money bag, has parted way with him, Patnaik’s path has been paved with obstacles. It is believe that Patnaik’s money has gone away with Mohapatra. So much so that Patnaik doesn’t even have enough money to run his own party. Pyaremohan Mohapatra has also made his party Odisha Janmorcha’s agenda clear – his party will get autonomy for west Odisha. If his party comes to power, not only will west Odisha get its own high court, but that Sambhalpuri language will also get the status of the official language. In the beginning of each of his speeches, Mohapatra does not forget to say that he regrets how he was unable to teach Navin Odiya language.

It has hardly been any time that the relationship between the BJP, NDA and P A Sangma has already turned sour. A few days ago, Sangma had made the announcement of his political party – National People’s Party. He had also sent a letter to Advani professing his party’s support to the NDA. For the Assembly elections this time, the BJP and Sangma’s party have formed an alliance. According to the arrangement, the NPP has left four seats for the BJP in the state. The BJP had assured full support in the elections to Purno Sangma and regarding it, Sangma had met Advani thrice, Narendra Modi twice, and Rajnath and Gadkari twice each, too. During all these meeting, he had been assured to the party’s support. But now when the elections are set to be held in Meghalaya on February 23, the BJP’s promises are proving to be empty and Sangma is said to be pretty upset about it. When Sangma’s party’s national secretary and treasurer Alok Goyal went to meet BJP leader Ramlal for help during elections after being directed to do so by Rajnath Singh, Ramlal clearly told Goyal that the BJP coffers were empty at the moment. He added that the party would not be able to extend any help to anyone at this time. An upset Sangma decided that he will neither go campaigning for any of the BJP leaders nor share the dais with any of them. In the days to come, Sangma’s party may also break its alliance with the BJP.

On the occasion of her granddaughter’s wedding, Mukesh and Anil Ambani’s mother Kokilaben held a grand pre-wedding party at her residence. The party saw almost the entire film industry present there. From the Congress there was R K Dhawan, Murli Milind Deora, Rajiv Shukla and Salman Khurshid. However, there were no big leaders from the BJP. Only Smriti Irani, BJP National Treasurer Piyush Goyal’s wife and NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra were spotted at the do. On the occasion, the guests were treated to a spread of vegetarian food. Chocolate had been ordered especially from Belgium and Italian food was prepared by chefs who had flown in from Italy. The menu had a large section of Gujarati food. At the same time, there was a team of Broadway, especially from New York, and Shahrukh danced merrily to its tunes. The most significant thing, however, was that both brothers Anil and Mukesh were seen together in harmony, and both were seen greeting the guests at the door.

After a hat-trick in the Gujarat elections, Narendra Modi may now put all his attention to the Lok Sabha elections that are due in 2014. For Modi, the biggest challenge at present is the image that he doesn’t believe in teamwork, is a one-man army and does not pay too much respect to Sangh and carried the Sanghathan in his pocket, is a fanatic Hindu, does whatever he wants to, does not take people along with him, and does not listen to people. So, in the days to come, Modi may have to increase the reach of his ears, his stature and heart. The first thing in the strategy would be to get Keshubhai Patel back in the BJP. Then he can encourage Keshubhai’s daughter or son to join active politics. And then he can join the fray of trying to win as many Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat as possible.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi recently met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and presented his case before them. It is believed that he told them the entire details about his alleged CS to the mother and son. He became a little emotional while talking to Sonia about the scam. Sonia told him, “I have the best of top degrees, but I believe my education is incomplete. The greatest degree in life is awarded by the university of adversity.” After that Singhvi presented the CFSL report that supports the theory of the CD being tampered with. Singhvi also placed his side of the story to Rahul, too, and said that even if the CD was real, why is it wrong, if the act was between to consenting adults. Singhvi also presented the names of two lawyer politicians who had framed him in the CD scam. It is believed that Sonia had her core committee investigate what Singhvi had to say in his defence. Only after the committee cleared his name and said he was innocent did he get his post back as the spokesperson.

Narendra Modi may have made preparations to win Gujarat elections once again, but the UPA government is also ready to file cases against several of his important industrialist friends. It is believes that government agencies have zeroed in on seven industrial houses who are backing Modi’s campaign with unlimited money. Sources reveal that the first name in the list may be that of Gautam Adani and the government is ready to give him a rude shock soon. The first matter is Adani Group’s investing money in projects outside of India. The amount is so high that the fine on this may amount to several crores of rupees.

Ever since Pranab da has settled down at Raisina Hills, there has been a paucity of firefighters in the Congress. As a replacement for Pranab da, the PMO and 10, Janpath, considered the name of A K Anthony so that he could take over dada’s role. But Anthony can’t speak in Hindi and the direction of the UPA is currently being influenced a little too much by leaders from north India. While looking for someone who can communicate in typical political language and establish communication and dialogue with the same finesse in Hindi, Chidambaram’s name was considered after Anthony’s and then rejected on the same grounds. The matter was kept on the backburner for a while. Then one day Kamal Nath and Rajiv Shukla met the prime minister and requested him to take over this part of the politics himself. It was then that the idea of dinner diplomacy took root and the beginning was with leaders such as Mayavati and Mulayam Singh. Later, BJP leaders were also sent similar dinner invites.