Members in rebel Cong leader Sachin Pilot's camp urge him to float a party

Name-face mismatch

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and bloopers, both when he opens his mouth or on social media, have acquired a life of their own. On Thursday, Deb tweeted to mark the birth anniversary of Bengali litterateur Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (July 23, 1898 — September 14, 1971). However, the photograph in that tweet was that of another Bengali litterateur Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, the creator of fictional detective, Byomkesh Bakshi, and author of several historical novels. When his followers on Twitter pointed out the mistake, Deb deleted the tweet. With Deb not correcting his original tweet, it seems he for once thought it wiser to not get into subjects he does not know enough about.

Sachin’s ‘pilot project’

Members in rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot’s (pictured) camp have begun urging him to float a party if they do not find a respectable entry into the Bharatiya Janata Party, now that their stay in the parent organisation has become untenable. Some others in the Congress have started to quip that a new party would be Sachin’s “pilot project” and it may struggle to take off. Meanwhile, another former Congress leader, Madhya Pradesh’s Jyotiraditya Scindia, took oath as Rajya Sabha member on Wednesday, as did senior Congress leader and someone Scindia blamed for leaving the Congress, Digvijaya Singh. Haryana MLA and Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi congratulated Scindia, tweeting his photograph with Scindia and Pilot, which set tongues wagging in the party.

Loyalty? What's that?

Thursday was a happening day for both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh. First Congress MLA from Mandhata (Khandawa district), Narayan Patel, resigned from his post in the state Assembly. Within a few hours, former BJP minister K L Agrawal joined the Congress with more than 400 supporters. Agarwal belongs to Guna district, which used to be former Congressman (and now with the BJP) Jyotiraditya Scindia’s Lok Sabha constituency till last year. Since the Congress government fell in March, MLAs have been switching loyalties quite casually. Last week, Pradyumna Singh Lodhi and Sumitra Kasdekar moved to the BJP. After that the Congress legislature party held a meeting, in which MLAs — including Patel — took an oath that they would not break away. After Patel quit the party, that promise, it appears, is being honoured more in the breach than in its observance.