Non Dynastic Heir Apparent
Nitish Kumar clearly anointed his successor when he welcomed Prashant Kishor into the Janata Dal United (JDU) as the “way forward”. He is pitching a non dynast against Lalu Yadav’s, and even Ram Vilas Paswan’s, sons. Kishor’s on ground connect was apparent during the Bihar campaign, when he helped put together the Mahagathbandan against the BJP. In fact, apart from Uttar Pradesh, where his grand plan for a Congress revival was foiled when the chief protagonist backed out at the last minute, he has had a pretty successful score in winning elections, from Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign to batting for the other side with Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab. To date, he rates the Punjab campaign as his most successful. And UP as the single minus point in his scorecard. Now it remains to be seen what the BJP and JDU bring for him in Bihar. But Kishor clearly has chosen what he thinks is the winning combination. It would be interesting to see him working with Amit Shah again, though.
Open Season for Alliances
Why did Mayawati go with Ajit Jogi in Chhattisgarh? Well it seems that the ambitious leader is sending some messages of her own to the Congress, which was keen to tie up with her in Madhya Pradesh, but not so keen for an alliance in Rajasthan. In which case, Mayawati has made it clear that if the Congress wants to play hard to get, then the BSP is free to explore other options as well. She has already antagonised the Congress by tying up with the INLD in Haryana. In return, Congress leaders have hinted that if she plays hard to get in UP, then they may look to the Bhim Sena for an alliance.
More Literary than Political
The visiting President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani was hosted by the India Foundation last week for a lecture-cum-tea. As many as four Union Ministers were present at the event along with Ram Madhav, the BJP’s rather resourceful party general secretary and one of the prime movers behind India Foundation. As both Ravi Shankar Prasad and Suresh Prabhu offered logistical and infrastructural help to the neighbouring country, it was M.J. Akbar whom President Ashraf Ghani singled out for praise by commenting that he had enjoyed reading his books. The visiting President’s love for literature was also evident when he began his remarks by recalling Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwala.