President Pranab da may well be adorning the highest seat in the country today, but it is believed that there is no one in the Congress who is as political as he is. So while Dada manages to listen to his overreaching political ambitions, on the other hand when he wants to share what is in his heart, he invites Ahmad Patel, Narayanswamy and Rajiv Shukla for late-night coffee at his residence and also gets updated on the latest on the Indian political scene.

Congress’ crown prince Rahul Gandhi’s worries remained on the inclusion in the Central Cabinet. His mother Sonia and sister Priyanka wanted that he should become a part of the Cabinet and show his governance prowess to the country. The two ministries that were being considered for Rahul were the human resource development ministry and rural development ministry. The advice from several Congress loyalists was sought on the same. Most leaders were in favour of Rahul Gandhi becoming a minister, while some wanted him to become the president of Congress Working Committee. On the other hand, Rahul was of the opinion that he should not be a part of the Cabinet but give his young colleagues more responsibilities in the government.

Regarding the law ministry, the notion that is gaining ground among the UPA and especially the Congress is that the ministry is cursed in some form or the other. Whoever takes over is almost sure to see his political journey take a turn for the worse. The first person who had to let go of the seat was Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj, because of a controversial comment. The chair was then being eyed by Abhishek Manu Singhvi but we all know what happened to him. Is Salman Khurshid next?

Rajya Sabha’s leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, is said to be a pretty miffed with the investigative agencies. He has made it known through a letter to the Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari through a letter. Sources reveal that the intent of the letter is to tell Ansari that investigative agencies are unnecessarily troubling him with the excuse of investigating Coalgate. What had happened is that when the IB and the CBI tried to investigate about the Coalgate scam, they found out that all big industrial groups such as the Tatas and Jindals had placed an “opinion” from the Opposition leader on the top of their files. The note said that the coal mine allotments had been done through a legal process. When the investigative agencies questioned Jaitley about the same, he said that he had given the opinion before he was made the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. He also said that it was according to his profession and now he is against Coalgate as the leader of Opposition. Investigative agencies and the Congress don’t like the argument because they know that every opinion can cost upwards of lakhs of rupees.

To tide over Mamata trouble, the UPA-2 government may take some tough decisions with its alliance partners in the days to come. For instance, discussions between Manmohan Singh and Sonia have resulted in both of them agreeing that the Railways Ministry will not go to any alliance partner but stay with the Congress and the Congress only. The ministry may be handed over to Ghulam Nabi Azad for the time being. Apart from this, rural development ministry will also stay with the Congress because it is the hub of all controls for the Congress prince Rahul Gandhi; not to forget the ministry’s budget is quite significant, too. The DMK is doing some heavy-duty lobbying for T R Baalu, but it doesn’t look like he will get lucky. The Congress will also retain the ministries such as law and personnel. If the UPA coalition parties are concerned, health and environment have always been a favourite with DMK. Just like how during the NDA rule, Jayalalithaa had asked for portfolios such as law, state finance and personnel departments for her own party.

There is a lot of pressure from Ambani senior to remove Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy. Seeing this, Sonia Gandhi has wondering if it would be a good idea to take Jaipal away from the Central government and give him the charge of Andhra Pradesh. Especially at a time such as now, when Jagan Mohan Reddy, whose regional party would give fresh trouble to the Congress in the state everyday, has decided to form an alliance with the party. In such a situation, Kiran Reddy may be given a post in the Central ministry. It is also being said that the stage is set to induct Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in Manmohan’s government. It is believed that he may be replaced by Narayan Rane for the chief minister’s post in Maharashtra. S M Krishna may also be made the head of Karnataka.

The UP Congress continues to grow anxious about Rahul Gandhi’s working style. The common opinion about him in the Congress is that he is naïve. He still has not been able to understand local politics and the caste equations in UP and Bihar. If he had, he would never have made someone like Nirmal Khatri the party president in the state. It doesn’t make any sense to make Mathur the leader of the Congress Assembly group either. In any case, what can poor Khatri do single-handedly – Rahul has made eight zonal presidents – Rashid Masood, P L Punia, Vijendra Singh, RPN Singh, Jitin Prasad, Vivek Singh, Anugraha Narayan Singh and Raja Rampal. Of these eight zonal presidents, five are outsiders – Rashid Masood, Punia, Vivek Singh, Anugaraha Narayan Singh and Raja Rampal. There is also some unrest in the cadre that Rahul has brought leaders from outside who enjoy more clout.

Whenever Rahul and Sonia meet at a public event, they ask each other, “How are you?” and both reply with the same refrain, “I am good.” It was the same exercise during the oath-taking ceremony of the President and on August 15 as well. Now people don’t seem to understand if it is a Western way of greeting each other or do the two meet everyday but don’t talk.

Ever since Sushil Kumar Shinde has become the Parliament leader of the party in place of Pranab Mukherjee, he manages to get into some trouble or the other. For instance, he got caught in a tussle with Jaya Bachchan in Rajya Sabha. When the entire Parliament was roaring with chaos about Coal-gate, Shinde approached Opposition Leaders Sushma Swaraj to request her to work towards making the Parliament run smoothly. Before he could get to her, Madam Swaraj saw him and gestured to him to rest assured and talk later. But when Shinde tries to sit down next to Swaraj and talk to her about the same and looked around her, he noticed that all the seats around her were occupied. Shinde thought maybe it was all right after all to speak to her while standing, but Madam Swaraj kept the formalities in mind and got a seat next to hers vacated. She then requested him to sit down and said, “Please sit down. In any case, this is going to be your seat after the Lok Sabha elections.” The way Sushma hit the barb, there was nothing left for Shinde to do but feel embarrassed.

In the days to come, the BJP may take up the issue that during her Assam tour, why did the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi go only to Bangladeshi camps? She didn’t meet the Bodos. The Bodos are returning back to their homes from the camps but what do the displaced Bangladeshi do, where do they do? Homes from both sides were burnt, after all. The army too apparently sympathises with the Bodos. Now the Congress is wondering if just like Hiteswar Saikia had made arms available to the Bodos in 1985-86, can’t it do the same for Bangladeshi immigrants? But reports by Indian investigative agencies create a fear that the Bangladeshi immigrants can use the same against India as well.