RAISINA HILL (JUNE)

By Amitabh Shukla

AMAR KATHA

Amar Singh, expelled from the Samajwadi Party, has a habit of being in news. So much so that he cannot do without media.

Not surprising, he says that some of his old party colleagues want him back in the SP. The contention of Amar was denied within hours by the SP which dismissed it as a claim without any basis.

With Amar's exit from the SP, the entire glamour quotient of the party has gone. The last in the list was Jaya Bachchan, who was given SP nomination for the second time in the Rajya Sabha but decided to opt out of the fray. It is understood that Amar Singh played a crucial role in the entire episode. Sanjay Dutt and Jaya Prada were the other prominent film-stars who rode piggy back on Amar for a berth in politics in the SP and then let it.

LALU U-TURN

RJD boss Lalu Prasad Yadav thinks that it was right time to make appropriate noises on behalf of the upper castes in view of the Bihar assembly elections in October-November. Fighting for his survival as another election loss would mean his political obituary, Yadav says that he is reaching out to the upper castes in the states.

The only problem is that no one is willing to listen to Yadav, a known upper caste baiter in his hey days when he ruled the roost in Bihar. The politician with a white hair and known for his humorous one-liners is fighting the battle of his life in Bihar. He wants all the cards in the right place. The only question is whether the upper castes ate listening to him.

NITISH

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is engaged in a shadow boxing with his ally Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). He knows it too well that both his JD-U and BJP compliment each other in Bihar and have entirely different vote bank which adds to the victory of both.

Attempting to woo the Muslim vote-bank from RJD, LJP and possibly the Congress, the Bihar CM used the pretext of the advertisements showing him with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to consolidate his weakening hold on the minorities.

As tension mounts in both the BJP and JD-U about the fallout of the episode, Lalu Prasad Yadav does not stop smiling. Both BJP and JD-U fighting separately would ensure the victory of his party, a scenario even the most optimistic RJD supporter would not imagine if the ruling alliance continues in Bihar. Congress too sees an opportunity here terming the NDA as a 'naturally dissolving alliance'.

SONIA

What Sonia Gandhi writes in the party mouthpiece 'Congress Sandesh' becomes the talking point for a while. "The Congress party has launched a mass contact programme in the country, with special attention being paid to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar," she said in her 'Letter to Congress persons' in the latest issue of the party magazine.

A senior Congress leader was unaware when asked whether any such mass contact programme is indeed there in Bihar, the only state where elections will be held this year. Even after scrutinising every word and paragraph of her signed article, nothing much could emerge as what could be called hard news.

"Better luck next time," a party leader was heard saying when asked what was news in Gandhi's write-up.

PASWAN MAKING NEWS

Ram Vilas Paswan returns to Parliament as a member of the Rajya Sabha after a gap of one year following his loss in the Hajipur Parliamentary constituency in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Not surprisingly, the dalit leader is back to business making one statement after the other as soon as he was declared elected.

The buzz is that Paswan could become a Cabinet Minister before the Bihar Assembly polls if he agrees for a poll-tie up with the Congress in the state. As Paswan was elected due to the support extended by RJD, it is a million dollar question to see if he would do an about turn. Both the Congress and the RJD want to use the clout of Paswan in the dalits of Bihar. Paswan himself is never critical of the Congress as he sees it as the only party which can assure him a berth in the Union Cabinet, a position he has enjoyed in almost every ministry since 1989.

COMMONWEALTH

The Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October is posing several problems for the government, the main being what to do with the massive projects after the games which have little or no economic value. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is finding it difficult to explain that huge expenses incurred over preparations for the Commonwealth Games are not being met out of the tax payers' money.

Recently, the government had hiked VAT on diesel from 12.5 to 20 per cent, besides increasing the registration fee for properties, road tax for luxury cars and circle rates for properties. More so, public transport has become 40 percent costlier after increase in the CNG rates.

Critics are questioning what will the city do with the stadiums, racing tracks and swimming pools after the games get over and was organising the games the right thing to do.

(7.6.2010)