It is understood that both the Prime Minister and Sonia are very angry with the IPL controversy. So the Prime Minister called Praful Patel to his home and scolded him. Reliable source tell that PM told Praful clearly that either get the resignation of Lalit Modi or submit your own. So the matter is hot and to tighten the noose around Modi, a new scheme of raids is also ready.

After all what is there in Shashi Tharoor that he is so dear to the Gandhi family? Reliable sources tell us that when at one time the name of the Congress president had figured in the Volcker Report, Tharoor had used his UN connection to settle the matter and making full use of his connections he had got that file put in the `highest classified file’ category. Or now that file can only come out of the cold storage only when the UN Secretary General so desires. Is such a small grant for such a big job something too much?

It seems the pressure of Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel is showing its colour. The IPL team of Kochi could get out of the hands of its present franchisee Rendezvous and now it could go to a third party or Venugopal Dhoot. Dhoot who? The Videocon man.

Gadkari has to work quite hard on making the new president of Delhi BJP. There are too many takers for the post and the list runs really long. After the short-listing done by Gadkari, there are still about 30 names in the list. Every candidate is being interviewed by the new management guru of BJP. For the time being, Vijay Jolly appears to be the front runner in the race. Jolly’s name has the backing of Advani, Vijay Goel, Arti Mehra and Vijender Gupta. If he were to get the nod of Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra then his day under the sun could be close. While contesting the last Assembly election opposite Sheila Dikshit, Jolly had to do a lot of dancing. Now the reins for making the party people dance could come into his hands.

A hoarding that has come up all over Delhi has left a bitter taste in the mouth of BJP. In this advertisement campaign a newspaper group has shown Rahul Gandhi sitting next to Mahatma Gandhi and given the punch line – how history changes. BJP is claiming that the newspaper’s full campaign is sponsored by th e Congress and this is a paid campaign.

As per the new organisational changes, now BJP would not have party in-charge in the States. The proposal of doing away with regional organisational secretaries is also being considered. In place of the State in-charges, the party is considering handing over the charge of the States to the national general secretaries.

SP has also started investigating that letter of Amar Singh which he had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi after announcement of the results of the Lok Sabha elections and in which he had put the entire blame for the breaking of the accord between Congress and SP on Ramgopal Yadav. In that letter he had also accused Ramgopal of betrayal on the seats of Farrukhabad and Pratapgarh. The interest of the Mulayam family has also increased in the case filed against Amar in Kanpur. Amar had go over 600 companies amalgamated into his own. The Mulayam family is continuously raising the question that where did Amar raise so many funds from and where did those funds go?

Former bureaucrats, retired Army officers and ex-intelligence officers are having a whale of a time in the Congress rule. Former chief of IB E.L. Narasimhan has got charge of an important state like Andhra Pradesh. U.P. Governor Rajeshwar Rao has retired from RAW, Sardar J.J. Singh is an ex-Army officer, and Nagaland Governor Nikhil Kumar had retired from police service. Sikkim Governor B.P. Singh is a former bureaucrat who had served in important posts as Home Secretary and Culture Secretary in the Government of India. Shekhar Dutt is also a former bureaucrat.

BJP may have lobbied strongly in favour of Kiran Bedi, and so too did several big film stars like Aamir Khan and several social organisations, but something else was going on in the mind of the Central Government. But the name which the Government is seriously
considering for the post of Central Information Commissioner is that of an officer of this very department, N.K. Tiwari, and his becoming the next Commissioner is being considered almost certain.

If all goes as per plan, then Gopinath Munde could be made the Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha because Gadkari, Sushma and Jaitley are all Brahmin leaders and so through Munde the party would like to bring a backward leader to the fore. But Advani still believes that his favourite help Ananth Kumar is best suited for this post. Since now Jaswant Singh has left the post of Chairman of the Public Account Committee, so Yashwant Sinha has now got his eyes firmly on this post. Even otherwise in Jharkhand, the party has made up its mind of giving preference to Arjun Munda over Sinha and so it would listen to Sinha in some matters. Or else, the post of Chairman of the Foreign Ministry Committee could also be offered to Sinha.