Twitter bonhomie
It was heartening to see some light humoured exchange between Opposition members last week on Twitter. On the eve of the Justin Bieber concert, Milind Deora, a former Union Minister tweeted that: “It doesn’t get any bigger. Apparently, I’m too old to be called a Belieber.” (Milind is 40 years old). To which a reply came from his colleague in Rajasthan. Rajasthan PCC chief Sachin Pilot (39 years old) tweeted: “Alas Milind. It seems just about everyone is younger than you, even me.” Jumping into the conversation was Derek O’Brien from the TMC who had the last word, saying: “You guys are middle aged. I am the only young one here at 56.” Touche. And isn’t this what social media should be about—some social exchanges instead of the harsh trolling that has hijacked this platform!
Nath to get charge of mp?
The Congress is planning to give in to the obvious and hand Madhya Pradesh charge to the one man who can at least give Shivraj Singh Chouhan a good fight. Sources say that Kamal Nath will be announced as the state PCC chief soon. This is part of the ongoing reshuffle in the Congress which is focusing on the election going states. There is also much speculation among the Congress recently after some news reports claiming that Jyotiraditya Scindia was tipped to replace Mallikarjun Kharge as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, especially when apparently Kharge himself is not aware of such a move. The rumours were sparked off by Kharge’s elevation as chairman of the PAC recently (he replaced K.V. Thomas who retired on 1 May). This is a post with Cabinet rank and in a way compensates for the current LoP post which is without a Cabinet rank as the Congress does not have the requisite numbers to qualify for a Cabinet post. Moreover, will Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi elevate Scindia to such a prestigious post? If they do, then clearly that would indicate that the Congress leadership is serious about reshuffling its ranks with younger and more capable leaders. However, sceptics within the Congress are asking if Scindia’s elevation would be at the cost of Rahul’s own leadership? And therein lies the rub.
Vajpayee of the Congress?
A senior BJP leader recently pointed out that Sheila Diskhit is the Vajpayee of the Congress. We are not quite sure how the former Delhi CM will react to it, but there is a point here. She is a strong, credible face who is not getting her due within the party, specially by Team Rahul. That much was clear when the Congress fought its MCD campaign on the slogan that the AAP had broken the thread of development (toot gayi vikas ki dor) started by them. A catchy slogan that fell flat when the Congress conveniently forgot to invite the face responsible for unleashing this spate of development in Delhi to campaign—the three time former CM of Delhi was missing from the Congress campaign. If the Congress doesn’t watch out, the BJP will be making overtures soon!