HARDIK SPILLS SOME GEHLOT SECRETSGujarat’s Hardik Patel, who has recently switched to BJP from Congress, is damaging his former party in neighbouring Rajasthan too. He has revealed that Raghu Sharma, the Congress in-charge for Gujarat, had confided in him that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had performed so poorly that the party would not win more than 10 seats in the next assembly election. Sharma has denied having said any such thing to Patel and questioned his credibility and stature. Interestingly, Congress insiders claim that Sharma was made in-charge of Gujarat because the high command wanted to get rid of him as the health minister of Rajasthan.No Place for MuslimsThe BJP’s fielding of Ghanshyam Lodhi from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur seat has brought down the curtain on cabinet minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s bid to enter Parliament. He was already denied reelection to Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand. Now, the BJP, for the first time since 1990, will have no Muslim face in Parliament. Two other Muslims, Sayed Zafar Islam and M.J. Akbar, have been denied reelection. It also has no Muslim MLA in the community’s strongholds in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.REACHING OUT TO MAMABJP national secretary Pankaja Munde convinced Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to visit her father Gopinath Munde’s memorial in Beed, Maharashtra, on his death anniversary on June 3. But there’s more to it than meets the eye. Pankaja is co-in-charge of MP, which goes to the polls next year. She and Chouhan both represent the OBC community. As politics over OBC reservation is heated in both states, Pankaja’s Chouhan outreach is seen as an attempt to consolidate support for her candidature in the Maharashtra legislative council polls due in July.PROVIDENT POLITICSBJP MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi has been providing transportation and accommodation to poor students who have to travel long distances to reach examination centres. Varun himself responds on social media to any youngster seeking help. However, BJP insiders call it a ploy to stay relevant after being sidelined. The three-time MP was removed from the BJP National Executive last year after he had demanded justice for families of farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}All Atwitter About the EDWith Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren questioning the lack of ‘official briefings’ by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the raids in the state, his party JMM has accused BJP MP Nishikant Dubey of tweeting about the ED’s action before hand. Though Dubey denied the allegation, his tweets about the ED’s findings are drawing traction. From tweeting about a Jharkhand politician having invested Rs 54 crore in properties to likely action against the CM’s advisor, Dubey has kept Twitterverse agog.—With Rohit Parihar, Anilesh S. Mahajan, Kiran D. Tare, Prashant Srivastava and Amitabh SrivastavaPublished By: Arindam MukherjeePublished On: Jun 10, 2022--- ENDS ---
