THWARTED AMBITIONSThe BJP’s Gujarat leaders are an unhappy lot. Not one of them has been appointed to the party’s national executive body in party president J.P. Nadda’s rejig. Particularly conspicuous by their absence are former chief minister Vijay Rupani and former deputy CM Nitin Patel. The latter is said to be smarting from the exclusion. Rupani was made Punjab in-charge in 2022 and given the task of overseeing the outreach programme marking nine years of Modi rule this May, while Patel has been kept busy in regional campaigning events. Everyone is now wondering about the fate of C.R. Paatil, whose term as state party president ended in July and who is now eyeing a cabinet berth or a key role in the organisation.DIARY DYNAMICSEven as dismissed Rajasthan minister Rajendra Gudha’s ‘red diary’ is creating ripples in the state, BJP PWD minister in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, Gopal Bhargava, is set to release the fourth updated edition of his ‘Sankatmochan Diary’. But fear not. It will have the numbers not of tainted individuals, but of Bhargava, his son, key aides and wor­kers. Should the residents of Bhargava’s con­stituency Rehli need to, they can call these numbers. Meanwhile, at his official resi­dence in Bhopal, Bhargava runs a kitchen, salon and living quarters in case anyone from Rehli drops in. Now you know why Bhargava has had eight successive wins from Rehli since 1985.Reward or Punishment?It seems Randeep Singh Surjewala is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Congress’s victory in the Karnataka assembly polls. The stature of the general secretary in-charge of the state has moved northwards after he was named one of the architects of the win. Now, the Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan has been appointed as a senior observer in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. With the Congress’s inner circle anticipating a win there, more rewards may come his way in the future. However, his detractors have a different take. They see it as a ploy to keep Surjewala away from his home state Haryana where his party senior Bhupinder Singh Hooda doesn’t want him around. Reward, did you say?BITING RETORTThe way to a man’s heart may often be through his stomach, but not in Bihar. As state governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar threw a dinner for all Bihar parliamentarians at a Delhi hotel on July 27, JD(U) and RJD MPs gave it a miss. JD(U) insiders say they did not have anything against the BJP-appointed governor or his food, but breaking bread with political opponents could have sent a wrong message. They may well have a point. Didn’t Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav attend each other’s Iftar parties last year before deciding to stitch up a fresh alliance in August?Seeking Allies Back in 2021, actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan had lost his Coimbatore South assembly seat by a mere 1 per cent margin. For the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he is leaving nothing to chance. A door-to-door campaign—Makkoludu Maiam—is already under way in Coim­batore. What is more, three days after the district’s first-ever woman bus driver, M. Sharmila, quit her job with a private bus operator, Haasan gave her Rs 3 lakh to book a seven-seater multi-utility vehicle. Sharmila quit because her employer accused of chasing the limelight—she had given DMK MP Kanimozhi a free ride on June 23. Was Haasan’s gesture because he may need the DMK for a Lok Sabha seat?—With Jumana Shah, Amarnath K. Menon, Rahul Noronha and Amitabh Srivastava
