Battle of 'Mahabharata' is being played out in Haryana all over again

Brother versus brother

Looks like the battle of Mahabharata is being played out in Haryana all over again. Only this time, it is between the brothers of the Chautala family. On Saturday, elder brother Ajay Chautala's supporters met in Jind to formalise his claim over the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). On the other side, the leader of the Opposition in the Haryana assembly and Ajay's younger brother Abhay Chautala announced his elder brother had been expelled from the party by INLD supermo Om Prakash Chautala. Adding grist to the rumour mill, Ajay's wife and Dabwali MLA Naina Chautala hinted that a new party was in the offing, and blasted her brother in law as a 'goon'. The BJP and the Congress would be watching the drama unfold with bated breath because they both stand to gain if the INLD — which commands a massive share of the Jat vote bank in Haryana — heads for a split.

A yatra for a yatra

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (pictured) has offered an antidote to the Bharatiya Janata Party organised rath yatra in the state next month. Branding it 'Ravan yatra', the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo called upon party members to "cleanse" the areas through which the BJP chariots would pass. She urged the people of her state to ignore the event as it was just another political gimmick. "I have asked my party workers to conduct a purification and unity yatra to cleanse the areas through which the chariots pass. I wonder what sort of yatra it would be with chariots equipped with five-star facilities," she said. BJP president Amit Shah is set to kick off three rath yatras in the state — on December 5, 7 and 9 — that will cover all of its 42 Lok Sabha constituencies. At the conclusion of the yatra, the party will hold a rally in Kolkata, which is expected to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rajini in the eye of the storm

Relief material distributed by actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth in Chennai has kicked up a storm. Food packets distributed by Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM), the launch vehicle of Rajinikanth’s yet-to-be-announced political party, carried images of the actor from his films Padaiyappa and Baasha. He was trolled for seeking political mileage from the relief work RMM had been carrying out in the aftermath of Cyclone Gaja. Rajinikanth had tweeted a congratulatory note for RMM officials on Friday for their work after the cyclone that left a trail of destruction.