Heard: Parineeti Chopra as face of Haryana’s ‘girl campaign’ takes health minister Anil Vij’s battle with CM Manohar Lal to new levels.
Overheard: Astrologers summoned after Narendra Modi’s last three trips to Varanasi cancelled for reasons beyond human control.
Bihar
Falling In Line
On paper, Laloo Yadav and Nitish Kumar are united. On the ground, though, there are mixed signals about the RJD chief. The buzz is the long arm of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may finally ensure that Laloo is driven into the arms of the BJP. The ED, it claims, has of late sent a flurry of notices to Prem Chand Gupta, ex-Union minister and close confidante of the Yadav strongman. Gupta is widely believed to have ‘managed’ his mentor’s finances and now ED is said to have pulled out evidence to link some of the overseas ‘investments’ made by Gupta for Laloo. The BJP may let the ED loose and allow the “law to take its course” or may wait till after the Bihar elections so that, if necessary, Yadav can be arm-twisted to join the NDA. Laloo’s camp has been busy scoffing at such speculation which, they say, is being planted by the BJP to create confusion before the polls.
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Jammu & Kashmir
On Their Guard
Former RAW chief A.S. Dulat’s disclosure that he had clandestine meetings with all the separatist leaders barring one and helped many of them financially, has come as a major embarrassment to the azadi votaries. While Dulat’s book on the state and the Vajpayee years shot to the top of the chart in the state in no time, virtually all separatists are now refusing to meet political emissaries from New Delhi or intelligence officers, bringing whatever little talks that were being held to a grinding halt. “Who knows what they are going to disclose and when,” exclaimed one of them. That they held secret talks was widely known; that many of them were on the payroll of central agencies was also known. But this is the first time this has been acknowledged by a senior official.
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Tamil Nadu
Poll Fever?
Are poll straws blowing in the wind? Jayalalitha’s government has a mandate till 2017, but a slew of developments, led by the continuing troubles of Sun TV, has fuelled speculation. DMK strongman M. Karunanidhi first stirred the pot with mention of the CM’s health. His son and scion, M.K. Stalin, has since been addressing big rallies, covered live on the family TV stations. Not to be outdone, PMK scion, Anbumani Ramadoss too has followed suit. And Modi has met Vaiko. All this means little given the AIADMK’s majority, but the buzz is the next polls may be a much closer affair.
Uttar Pradesh
Greased In The Pit
The CBI probe against Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh is giving sleepless nights to top netas in and out of power. The reason is not far to seek. Yadav Singh’s rise from a humble junior engineer to a tailor- made engineer-in-chief of UP’s three goldmines—Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authority, was more intriguing than any rags-to-riches story. The man had a finger in every pie—be it Mulayam’s or sworn rival Mayawati’s. The I-T raids which led to exposure of assets worth hundreds of crores, did shake up things. But what brought some respite was Akhilesh government’s success in drowning the popular demand for a CBI probe by hastily appointing a wishy-washy judicial commission. Now that the Allahabad HC has ordered a CBI probe, matters are more likely to heat up!