Talk to KCV
At a lunch recently hosted by a Congress leader, the talk turned to the coming elections and of course Rahul Gandhi’s plans. Interestingly, when they started to compare notes, all the Congress leaders present realised that whenever they had reached out to Rahul Gandhi, seeking a meeting or with a query, they all got the same one line reply from him: Talk to KCV. And somehow that didn’t quite cut it, so Rahul needs to up his accessibility game if he wants to retain all those who are still with the Congress.
The BJP’s First List
The BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates has some interesting takeaways. While former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been fielded from the Lok Sabha and is expected to be a part of Narendra Modi’s cabinet if the BJP comes back to power again, his other ex CM colleagues have not been so lucky as Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh did not make it to the first list, and given the fact that Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant has been fielded again from his constituency, it is unlikely that the PM will give tickets to two members from the same family; although her nephew Jyotiraditya Scindia has been fielded, albeit from Gwalior. The motormouths have been left out, as both Pragya Thakur and Ramesh Bidhuri were not given tickets from Delhi, and BJP sources claim that the PM wants his third term to focus on development and not damage control. It would be interesting to see whom the BJP fields from Rae Bareli—or for that matter whom the Congress fields as well. There is another mother-son duo in the BJP (for all its talk about Parivar-vaad), as both Varun and Maneka Gandhi are sitting MPs. Here too the family quota of one may apply and if that is the case then probably Varun will be contesting. But this is just the first list, so watch this space, especially to see which cabinet ministers will be fielded in the Lok Sabha.
Congress (Modi)
Suspended Congress leader Sanjay Jha came up with an interesting take recently when he quipped that with so many Congress leaders joining the BJP it would soon be renamed from Congress (Nehru) to Congress (Modi).
AAP’s New Voter List
There is an interesting fallout of the Congress-Aam Aadmi Party tie-up. Since the New Delhi seat has been given to the Aam Aadmi Party, all the three Gandhis, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka will end up voting for the AAP since their voting booths come in this constituency. Wonder if this Made in I.N.D.I.A bonhomie will last till the Delhi polls due next year.