As the date for the Presidential election draws closer, speculation about possible contenders has also picked up. To the names of Jharkhand governor Draupadi Murmu, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Maharashtra governor Vidyasagar Rao has been added a fresh one. According to the grapevine, social activist Anna Hazare, the face of the 2011 anti-corruption campaign against the UPA government, is also being considered by the BJP. Little was known about Mr Hazare till six years ago as his campaigns had till then been confined to Maharashtra. But he captured the nation’s imagination when he led the anti-graft campaign in Delhi. The BJP is said to be warming to Hazare because he has strong links with the RSS. Importantly, his leanings are not public knowledge and he can, therefore, be projected as a neutral person. In fact, it was suspected that it was the RSS that had fielded Anna to take on the UPA government. His candidature not only ties in with the PM’s penchant to spring surprises, it will also be difficult for the Opposition, specially the Congress, to reject an anti-corruption crusader.
Ever since the BJP emerged as a serious contender for power in Odisha after its remarkable performance in the last local elections, the normally reclusive chief minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik has come out of his self-imposed exile.
The four-term chief minister has shed his complacency and become more vocal and visible. He recently rejigged his Council of Ministers, cracked the whip on party rebels and has made himself accessible to people, even clicking selfies with students. Not just that, Mr Patnaik has also hired a PR agency to publicise his activities in Delhi media circles. To give him an image makeover, the agency is trying to dispel the popular perception that Mr Patnaik is aloof and uncaring. For instance, it recently sent out a news item for publication about how the ever-vigilant chief minister’s office reacted promptly to a tweet from a citizen drawing attention to a case of child trafficking. Mr Patnaik’s office, it was said, sprang into action and lost no time in rescuing the five children from Ganjam. Mr Patnaik also tweeted appreciating the swift action of the state police and the “good Samaritan” who alerted the administration.
Trinamul Congress lawmaker Derek O’Brien has written a blog titled “Six lessons I have learnt as an MP including the perils of Khan Market”, on the completion of his first term as a Rajya Sabha member. He has underlined the importance of research and an MP’s quest for feedback which, he says, should take you to the grassroots for personally-felt experience and inputs from those actually affected by a bill or a policy. “There is no point limiting your research to the two dozen know-alls permanently hanging around in the capital’s Khan Market,” he goes on to add. The reference to Khan Market has amused many because Mr O’Brien has often confessed that he has become a “Khan Market junkie” since becoming an MP. He is a regular at one of the upmarket eateries in Khan Market. He keeps coming back to the place for its beetroot and herbs salad, which, he says, is his favourite.
Uttarakhand’s education minister Dhan Singh Rawat is seething with anger these days. On a recent visit to Delhi with his family, Mr Rawat was left stranded at the railway station as there was no official car or officer to receive him. He waited at the station for nearly an hour and it was only when he called up the officials that they realised they had messed up. The episode was particularly galling for Mr Rawat because he holds charge of the state’s protocol department, too. To make matters worse, Lok Sabha MP and former Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who also reached Delhi at the same time, was whisked away immediately by his staff in his official car. A furious Mr Rawat did not wait for the officials but instead hired a taxi and went straight to a local hotel. The errant officials made several attempts to placate him but to little avail as he ordered the transfer of the Delhi-based estate officer on his return to Dehradun.
