Blame it on the Divine
Trust Subramanian Swamy to give the quotable quote of the week. During his weekly interview with NewsX he was asked about the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman blaming the state of the economy to an “Act of God”. Without batting an eyelid, he quipped back, “Hope she is not blaming me!” To his credit this is one BJP MP who has been warning about the economy even before the GDP statistics came out—in fact, Dr Swamy rang the alarm bells as far back as 2015.
Devendra Fadnavis on a comeback?
The former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ name is currently doing the rounds as the next Finance Minister. Whether that happens or not because most Prime Ministers are wary of appointing someone so close to the financial capital as the FM, Devendra Fadnavis is certainly on a comeback trail. He was recently appointed the election in charge of Bihar, a post recently held by Amit Shah favourites such as Bhupender Yadav and Dharmendra Pradhan. There is also talk of him filling in one of the four vacancies in the party’s Parliamentary Board. Now perhaps an induction in the Union Cabinet is also on the cards. One is not quite sure whether the PM is in a mood to change the FM for by now he’s made it clear that he doesn’t act according to advice from social media and newspaper editorials. So maybe another ministry may be in the offing for Fadnavis, if not his old job. Because don’t ever think that Amit Shah has given up on his plans of trying to wrest back the Maharashtra government.
Himanta Sarma’s Next Move
Why did Himanta Biswa Sarma, easily the BJP’s most charismatic face in Assam, suddenly announce that he will not be contesting the next state polls due in 2021? The announcement was made on social media and no explanation was given except that he would be working hard to ensure that the BJP retains the state. The obvious answer of course is that the party is keen to carry on with the current CM Sarbananda Sonowal who also enjoys the PM’s goodwill. Has Sarma realised the inevitable and is now looking for a place in the Union Cabinet? Certainly if a relative outsider like Jyotiraditya Scindia is rewarded before him it would hurt, especially since Sarma has been the chief architect behind the BJP’s rise in the Northeast, along with party general secretary Ram Madhav. Moreover, if you recall, Sarma was keen to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but was persuaded against it by Amit Shah. It would be interesting to see Sarma’s next move for without him the BJP will find it tough to retain its new Northeast strongholds.
Rise of K.C. Venugopal
It has been a slow but very steady move from the backroom to the front office for the Congress General Secretary in charge of the organisation. But K.C. Venugopal has clearly emerged as Rahul Gandhi’s go-to man in any crisis. We saw him lead the damage control in Rajasthan, he has also become a vocal voice in the internal party fora where he is often seen raising issues that the former party president would like addressed. Also, it was on his advice that Rahul decided to contest the 2019 polls from Venugopal’s home state Kerala. That Rahul counts on him is clear from the fact that he was recently given a Rajya Sabha seat (denial of a Rajya Sabha seat was one of the reasons Scindia’s supporters have cited for his leaving the party). Interestingly, Congress sources claim that during the last year after Rahul resigned and was keen to see a non-Gandhi emerge as the party chief, he had sounded Venugopal about this role. But the latter had declined. But there is an extent to what you can say “no” and get away with; and clearly as Team Rahul strengthens its hold over the party, expect to see a lot more of KC in the frontlines along with his Boss.