If you look at it, politics is also a game and who knows it better than the bureaucrats. So instead of doing the rounds of different ministries for the transfers that they seek, they now just don a sunhat and prefer playing golf. Because a lot of these matters are nowadays sorted on the golf courses. Central Home Secretary R K Singh who recently retired is also an avid fan of golf. Also, a senior IPA officer Dilip Trivedi’s seniority was put aside and he was made an additional director in the BSF only on their mutual friendship over golf. Several senior officers were waylaid for this post. It is worth mentioning here that CRPF’s current DG Pranay Sahay is due to retire on July 31.

IB’s Special Director Rajendra Kumar, who hit headlines with Ishrat’s fake encounter case, is due to retire on August 31. This is the biggest reason why the IB didn’t allow the CBI to prosecute him. So, the CBI couldn’t name him in the chargesheet even when it wanted to and that much is clear. And in any case, after someone’s retirement, CBI doesn’t need to prosecute the person.

Because Jagan’s mother is not very comfortable with Hindi and English, Jagan has decided that he will play up the role of his wife Bharti Reddy in Delhi’s politics, who also had a good grasp on Hindi and English apart from Telugu. A few days ago Bharti was in Delhi with her two daughters and stayed in Jagan’s official residence at Lodhi Road in Delhi. The owner of the known PR company in Delhi, whose services Jagan has used in the recent past, is said to be close to 10, Janpath and the irony is that this PR master couple does not get along well with Digvijay. So they also prefer that in the Jagan connection, Sonia has more say than Rahul. Jagan has also decided that his wife will be spending the next two-three months in Delhi, try to create better contacts with the media and explore new opportunities for Jagan’s party at the Centre.

The Lok Sabha election in the country will be held on time. BJP members were shouting aloud about the elections taking place in November, but the Congress couldn’t care less about it and is no hurry. The Congress wants to see how much ruckus can be created within the BJP by leaders who are not happy with the sudden rise to power by Modi. The UPA government has a large fund for publicising and advertising the UPA government’s policies and achievements. The ripples can be seen in the media. The UPA government wants to stake claim to everything from direct cash transfer to food security bill and wants time for this exercise. At the same time, the Congress wants to speed up the investigations of cases such as Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin, so that there is a lot of bad press against Modi.

In June-end or beginning of July, there are chances that there may be a reshuffle in Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet. If sources are to be believed, a total of six new ministers may be introduced, of which three may be from the Sonia quota and three from Rahul. After the shocks from Pawan Bansal and Ashvini Kumar, 10, Janpath is wary of people from the Manmohan Singh fold. So it is speculated that Manmohan will not have a say in this reshuffle. Rahul wants to reintroduce several of his reliable people back in the fold. From his quota, the same names are doing the rounds, for instance, Manik Tagore, Meenakshi Natarajan, Raj Babbar, Jyoti Mirdha and so on. Keeping in mind the Assembly elections in six states, including Jharkhand, 10, Janpath, wants to give priority to these states. Which means that there is a strong possibility that the ministers will be from these states. Keeping in mind Rajasthan’s importance, CP Joshi may be made the new Railways Minister.

The current director of the CBI Ranjeet Sinha’s friendly behaviour has made him popular with the ruling parties as well as the Opposition. Not just the Congress, he has several friends in the BJP as well. There are politicians from the Bihar-Jharkhand background who barely know him but say they are extremely close to him. A similar BJP leader duped a real estate businessman from Delhi for nearly Rs 6 crore. He promised his work will be done but nothing happened and now the politician has even stopped taking the politician’s phone calls. The real estate man has met several BJP leaders about this but the Parliamentarian is safe at present.

Congress leader Ajit Jogi and his son Amit Jogi are never far from controversies. Sources reveal that a few days ago, there was a lot of activity and action regarding Amit Jogi’s unpaid bills to a travel agent. The matters got so out of hand that Jogi even slapper the travel agent in the heat of the moment. The agent was on his way to register an FIR against Amit Jogi. Those present on the occasion understood the gravity of the situation and somehow managed to resolve the issue.

For Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh, this is the time for a political rise. Not only is Pankaj active in political quarters, but is also helping out his father with his work load. Two people had the maximum say this time when it came to appointing two seat holders for the Yuva Morcha. One is Murlidhar Rao, who is also the secretary of the Morcha, and Pankaj Singh, on his recommendation four-five seats people were appointed on the national level. Sources reveal that Pankaj Singh is preparing to contest the next Lok Sabha elections. If Rajnath Singh contests the elections from Lucknow this time, Pankaj may contest the elections from Ghaziabad or Gautam Buddha Nagar.

After the BJP’s defeat in Karnataka, BJP’s star politician Narendra Modi’s status in the party has gone down a tad bit. Sources reveal that before the results for Karnataka elections came, Modi’s interference in the party’s daily and regular working was a lot more. He would call up the BJP President Rajnath Singh every two-three days saying that such and such issue should be raised, such as such party president should give this particular comment about an issue and so on. On the day of Karnataka elections, Rajnath Singh had called up NaMo and said, “You are invited to the Parliamentary Board meeting. Please do come. Even if the party loses, your being there in the meeting will boost the morale of the present leaders.” Modi had agreed to be there. But as soon as the Karnataka elections results were out, Modi made an excuse about a toothache and didn’t come to Delhi. Several prominent party leaders didn’t like this and thus the party is now no longer seeking Modi’s opinion on several party matters.

Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janta Party (KJP) may not have achieved any decent figures at the recent Assembly elections in Karnataka, but the party has everyone by winning 10 Assembly seats. Now the BJP is eyeing the KJP with hungry eyes. The party knows that without getting Yeddyurappa to their side, they will not be able to manage anything major in the state during the Lok Sabha elections. Thus, despite reservations from Advani, Sushma and Ananth Kumar, baits are being prepared to get Yeddyurappa. But Yeddyurappa does not seem to be too keen to join the BJP at present. But yes, he has indicated that there some kind of a political arrangement might be possible between the KJP and BJP. Yeddyurappa is eyeing 10 Lok Sabha seats. The deal may be struck at eight.