Modi govt to celebrate Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Varanasi on January 21

The Narendra Modi government plans to celebrate next year's Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) with much fanfare in Varanasi. The event is usually held on January 9, the day Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915. However, this time it will be held on January 21 and will coincide with the Kumbh festival. Varanasi is the Lok Sabha constituency of the Prime Minister. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi is currently on a visit to Mauritius and that county's PM Pravind Jugnauth is slated to attend PBD 2019. With the US President Donald Trump turning down New Delhi's invitation to be the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations in 2019, there is speculation that Jugnauth might be invited to step in.

A binding force

Andhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will spend Thursday and Friday in Delhi. Sources say Naidu has decided to spend a couple of days every week over the next few months in the capital. He has given a call to 'save the nation', and on Thursday, is slated to meet Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. There is speculation that Naidu might also meet Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. The Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party and the Congress have an alliance for the Telangana Assembly polls, scheduled for December 7, and the two parties are exploring an alliance for AP as well in 2019. Naidu's room at the AP Bhavan in New Delhi has been spruced up and a control centre set up to track developments in that state during his stay in the national capital.

Baap of all elections

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has got a new name in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. Local party workers are calling it the Baap (father) party. In four of the five assembly seats in Dewas, sons are contesting to carry forward the legacy of their fathers. From Dewas, Tukojirao Pawar won six times. After his death, his wife Gayatriraje represented the seat and her son Vikram Singh is looking to contest in the coming elections. Ex-CM Kailash Joshi won the Bagli seat eight times; his son Deepak Joshi, also represented the seat but has shifted to Hat Piplya after Bagli was reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Govind Sharma represented Khategaon in the nineties. His son Ashish Sharma is the sitting MLA and is again in the fray. Rajendra Verma is the current MLA from the Sonkucth seat; before him, his father Phoolchandra Verma contested the seat unsuccessfully.