Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls: 'Tai' and 'bhai' locked in cold war

The cold war between tai and bhai is becoming a source of worry for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Indore has nine assembly seats but no candidate has been announced yet. Ticket distribution for these seats got delayed due to a tussle between tai, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, and bhai Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also party general secretary and MLA from Mhow. Both Mahajan and Vijayvargiya are pushing the candidature of their sons. Vijayvargiya wants Indore-2 seat for his son Akash and Mahajan wants Indore-3 ticket for her son Mandar. Though these are two different seats, the problem is Indore-2 MLA Ramesh Mendola is a close confidant of Vijayvargiya and the latter is pushing for the Indore-3 ticket to be offered to Mendola. Expectedly, tai is not happy.

No free advice

There were some members of the Indian National Congress among the audience at the All India Professionals' Congress event in Mumbai last week. During the question-and-answer session right after an interaction between INC spokesperson Sanjay Jha and Supreme Court Justice (retired) J Chelameswar, a member of the audience asked Justice Chelameswar if he had any suggestion on judicial reforms that could be incorporated in the Congress party's manifesto for the next elections. Justice Chelameswar asked why should he do that for free, clarifying that he did not mean he should be paid for it, but that he would not like to go around offering unsolicited advice to political parties unless asked.

Birthday surprise

On Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajasthan's Twitter handle surprised party supporters by wishing Yashwant Sinha on his birthday. “Wishing senior BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha on his birthday,” @BJP4Rajasthan tweeted, with a big photograph of Sinha, and smaller ones of Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and BJP state chief Madan Lal Saini. It was a surprise because the former Union minister has emerged as one of the foremost critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last year, Sinha quit the BJP to float “Rashtra Manch”, and has publicly campaigned against his former party since the Gujarat assembly polls in December 2017. Along with former Union minister Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, Sinha has also alleged a scam in the purchase of the Rafale fighter jets from France by the government.