The decision to make Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singhdeo, the Maharaja of Surguja, popularly known as Baba, as Deputy Chief Minister in the Baghel government was not easy for the Congress high command. If sources are to be believed, Singhdeo was so angry with his party high command for not getting the Chief Minister’s term of two and a half years in the state that he had made up his mind to leave the Congress just before the elections. If sources are to be believed, Singhdeo had already talked to Arvind Kejriwal, the convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, and was all set to sweep the Congress’s plans of victory in the upcoming state elections. It is said that after this Rahul’s close friend Kanishka Singh came into action and he hurriedly got Singhdeo to talk to Rahul. Immediately Singhdeo was summoned to Delhi. The Congress leadership was apprehensive that due to the rebellion of Singhdeo, it could have a direct impact on 14 seats in Surguja division, apart from this it could also have an impact on a dozen seats around Surguja. So, as soon as Singhdeo reached Delhi, he had a marathon four-hour meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Kumari Selja, in-charge of Chhattisgarh. After this, Kharge and Rahul Gandhi sat alone for some 45 minutes, then an important decision was taken to make Singhdeo the Deputy CM.

The BJP has started giving a new edge to its election strategy in Madhya Pradesh. After the opinion polls in the state were found unsatisfactory, the party high command has approved a new strategy. Maybe the BJP will give them financial help so that they can defeat the authorized Congress candidate. Some strong candidates can also be made to stand against the Congress candidate. There is a situation of rebellion in the BSP in the Bundelkhand region and the BJP has already started identifying the rebel BSP leaders. It is believed that the BJP can equip them and field them against the Congress candidates.

On the one hand, while the efforts of the opposition unity are going on, the BJP is also chalking out its election preparations. In this context, the party’s central leadership has almost confirmed that ‘in the 2024 elections, the party will say goodbye to its 70 plus MPs and replace them with new faces.’ The ticket cutting is also considered to be fixed. For this, the BJP has also prepared the report card of all its sitting MPs. The BJP has set a target of winning all 80 seats in UP. Those MPs whose tickets might get cut are Satyadev Pachauri, VK Singh, Hema Malini, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Santosh Gangwar, Jagdambika Pal and Satyapal Singh, and even Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who is facing the heat of the wrestlers and opposition. The tickets of 6 out of 17 present MPs of Bihar may be cut, which may include the names of Giriraj Singh, Ashwini Choubey, RK Singh, Radha Mohan Singh, Rama Devi and Ravi Shankar Prasad. Sensing the essence of the occasion, Ashwini Choubey is already scrambling for a ticket for her son Arjit Shashwat. It is being told that the tickets of 10 sitting saffron MPs from Gujarat, 9 from Karnataka, 8 from Maharashtra, 2 from Jharkhand, 5 from Madhya Pradesh and 5 from Rajasthan are almost certain to be cut. This process of ticket cutting can start only from the coming assembly elections of 5 states. The Sangh is also said to be in favor of ‘betting only on new and fresh faces in big Hindi heartland states like Madhya Pradesh’, and there are reports that 40 sitting BJP MLAs from Madhya Pradesh may also be denied tickets.

Sources reveal that the BJP may field more than 50 current or retired bureaucrats in the 2024 elections. Sources also reveal that a team has been formed under the leadership of BJP’s Organization General Secretary BL Santosh and party General Secretary Vinod Tawde, who have completed the identification of such popular bureaucrats by roaming across the country. Some names are emerging in this episode, one of them is that of former IAS officer Parveen Singh Pardesi, who is currently gracing the NITI Aayog. He may get BJP ticket from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Radheshyam Mopalwar, who became popular from Pani Panchayat in Marathwada, is said to be the choice of Eknath Shinde and preparations are on to field him in the electoral fray. On the other hand, Parveen Singh Pardesi’s closeness to Devendra Fadnavis is well known. Apart from this, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh can be fielded from any Gujjar-dominated seat in Haryana or Rajasthan. Alternatively, he may also be fielded from UP or Maharashtra.

Recently, BSP chief Mayawati got the statues of Dr. Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram removed from her party office in Lucknow and shifted them to her official residence. Along with this, Mayawati has also ordered to make her own statue. It is said that Maya Memsaheb’s statue will be placed right in the middle of the statues of Dr Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram. The argument behind the removal of these two idols from the party headquarters is that ‘Behenji’ does not go to the party office these days and she does all the work of the BSP from her official residence. However, opposition to the party supremo’s decision to remove the statue has started in the party itself and Kunwar Fateh Bahadur, who was once one of Behenji’s special confidantes, has sparked this protest. On the other hand, Mayawati can often be heard saying to BSP leaders and workers these days that ‘Baba Saheb and Kanshi Ram ji used to say that the upliftment of Dalits can happen only when they remain with the government.’ Is this declaration of Maywati an indication that she is willing to go with the BJP in the 2024 elections?

The platform of the opposition unity is not even ready yet that its stove has started shaking. Just when the meeting of the opposition unit was about to begin, AAP gave its rant that ‘the one who is with us on the ordinance is with democracy and the one who is not with it, is anti-democracy.’ When a five-member delegation of AAP, headed by two CMs Kejriwal and Maan, reached Patna, Congress President Kharge gave a terse reply that ‘the ordinance should be talked about in Parliament and not on public forums.’ Hearing Kharge’s words, there was so much disappointment in the AAP camp that the party delegation, which had to take a flight to Delhi at 4.30 pm, instead chose to catch the afternoon flight at 1.30 pm even before united opposition’s press conference. On the other hand, while Rahul Gandhi’s flight was at 2:30, Rahul sat in the press conference till the end.

On this 23rd June in Patna, when the new scene of opposition unit was put forward, knowingly or unknowingly Rahul Gandhi ‘looted’ the united opposition’s ‘appeal’. In the clan of 15 opposition parties, out of 13 parties, only Rahul was received by CM Nitish along with his team of ministers at Patna airport. Nitish wanted to ‘receive Rahul and take him directly from the airport to his CM residence, where the meeting of the opposition unit was called.’ As he reached the ashram, where a huge crowd of Congressmen had gathered, referring to the country’s first President Rajendra Prasad, Rahul shouted that ‘Bihar is in the DNA of the Congress.’ When he was passing through the South Indian states, he was welcomed by a huge crowd of people from Bihar, working in these southern states. The most important thing is that the Bihar Congress did not publicize Rahul’s arrival enough that Rahul came to the Sadakat Ashram and greeted the Congress workers. Despite this, Congressmen thronged to Rahul’s meeting. In this important meeting of the opposition parties, Lalu Yadav reached Nitish’s house half an hour before the meeting time and this has put an end to the speculations that nothing is going well between RJD and JDU in the state. Mamata Banerjee reached Lalu’s house first, which was enough to tell the importance of this leader of Bihar. In a way, Lalu became a ‘centre-stage’ of the whole meeting. He appeared hesitantly in white kurta-pajama and he also made a loud noise that he is ‘absolutely fit.’ Moreover, Lalu’s ‘wedding jibe’ at Rahul has also stamped the fact that in 2024, Rahul will be the ‘bridegroom’ of the united opposition i.e. he will be the face of the opposition. As this column was the first to expose the secret that the Congress wants the ‘next meeting of the opposition unit to be held in a Congress-ruled state’ ‘, Congress had also suggested two options on its behalf, Shimla or Jaipur, and finally this meeting was approved in the name of Shimla.

As the time for the 2024 general elections is coming closer, the saffron politics is also taking new forms everyday. Ammunition for change in political atmosphere is burning, so BJP has already started its permutation and combination for each and every seat of Lok Sabha. Many new rules and regulations are being framed, like the ministers who have been decorated in the Modi government with Rajya Sabha quota have been asked to find a suitable seat for themselves in their respective home states, from where they can contest the next Lok Sabha elections. When Narendra Modi became the sole face of BJP in 2014, he had decided that no party leader would get Rajya Sabha term more than 2 times. Former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also did not get the next chance because of his formula. Another formula of Modi made place in saffron headlines that leaders above 75 will not get ministerial post. Under this formula, Yeddyurappa had to leave the post of CM in Karnataka. BJP strategists are already busy in brainstorming meetings regarding 2024. The echoes emanating from these meetings are also being heard clearly that more than one-third of the sitting MPs may be denied tickets in big Hindi heartland states like UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh. At the same time, some ministers and legislators of the UP government can also get tickets for the Lok Sabha elections. These names include leaders like Jitin Prasad, Rajeshwar Singh, Brajesh Pathak, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Pratap Singh in this list. Former ED officer Rajeshwar Singh is said to be a favorite of Amit Shah. Rajeshwar Singh is said to be eyeing Sultanpur seat, from where currently Maneka Gandhi is the sitting MP.

It is said that nothing is permanent in politics, neither enmity nor friendship. The Modi government, which has been handling Jaganmohan Reddy’s tantrums for so many years, is now showing a changed attitude regarding Andhra. Its fragrance was realized when Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a public meeting in the South, for the first time took a dig at Andhra CM Jaganmohan Reddy and said, “The Jaganmohan government has not done any work in the state except corruption. Jagan’s cadre loots the money Modi government of Delhi sends to Andhra.” In fact, there was an alliance between Naidu’s TDP and the BJP in the 2014 general election, in which the BJP won 3 seats. But in 2018, Chandrababu broke his ties with the BJP. But now for the last one year, Chandrababu has been coming to Delhi in the struggle to regain his lost ground in his home state and has been doing rounds of BJP’s top leaders. Chandrababu’s TDP openly supported Draupadi Murmu, the NDA’s presidential candidate, in this presidential election as well. BJP wants to overcome its weakening mass base in South India, so if it gets Chandrababu’s support in this way, it can present a serious challenge to Chandrasekhar Rao in the coming Telangana assembly elections also because Telugu Desam has won some seats in Telangana, but it still has mass influence. In May next year, along with the Lok Sabha elections, assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh will also be held, where the BJP wants to repeat the history of 2014 by getting Chandrababu’s support.

More than 6 months have passed since Mallikarjun Kharge became the President of the Congress, but he still has not been able to form his new team. It is said that the 47 members of Kharge’s steering committee are very active behind this, who do not want the party president to ignore their utility with the announcement of his new team. Kharge is also under pressure from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to announce his new team as soon as possible. It is said that for the last 2-3 days, Kharge is engaged in a marathon meeting with his core team, so that he can give a face to his new team. Sources reveal that preparations are on to give Bhupinder Singh Hooda a ‘freehand’ in the Haryana elections. Hooda is lobbying to give the charge of western UP to his son Deepender Hooda. Former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat, who has expressed his desire to retire from politics, wants to remain a part of the working committee. Both the old and important leaders of Madhya Pradesh Congress i.e. Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh have crossed 75. The party wants to bring forward its young and new faces, but for this the two leaders do not seem ready. The name of Jitu Patwari, a young leader from Madhya Pradesh itself, is coming to the fore, and Kharge wants to assign him an important responsibility in his team.