A minister has courted several controversies and cornered the limelight just in a few days of his tenure in office. He has again done something different by changing the name of his bungalow that was baptised as ‘Kashiyana’ in government folders, but the minister has it christened as ‘Kashi Sewa Sadan.’ The nameplate he has put at the gate of his bungalow contains the new monicker. The minister has done this, as the reports say, to appease the RSS. By changing the name of his bungalow, he also wanted to send a message to the public that he is as strong as anyone in the party. Several ministers of the BJP stayed in the bungalow, but none of them had ever brooded over changing its name. The minister, however, could not change its name on official record.
There are attempts to give a hard time to a minister in the state. An order has been recently issued in connection with the minister’s previous department. But the order was leaked in a planned manner to tattle a few people in the corridors of power that the then minister had a role in the irregularities that took place in the department. Immediately after this incident, there were concerted efforts to defame the minister. He is also looking for those who are out to vilify him. The minister is, however, confident that none of his detractors has the guts to denigrate him. There are reports that some of his adversaries had a shot at vilifying him a few days ago through the media. There is a well-scripted plot to stitch the minister up to foil his attempts to go for any higher position in the cabinet. Ergo, efforts are on to set him up before he lays claim to any higher position.
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A senior leader of the Congress has been appointed chairman of a parliamentary committee. The leader’s position in the party is very high, and he has already held this position, but the way the incident was given media hype indicated as if the leader had landed on the moon. The leader and his supporters made innumerable posts on social media about the appointment. His supporters congratulated him for the achievement. Many people have been advised to make posts on the leader’s ex-accounts. After the Congress’s humiliating defeat in the assembly election, it was said that the leader concerned had been sidelined, and the party high command stopped interacting with him. By giving publicity to his appointment as chairman of a committee, his supporters wanted to pass on a message to this leader’s adversaries that he is still close to the high command, and that he has been given this responsibility because of his closeness to the party bosses.
Whether a wildlife sanctuary near the state capital should be developed into a tiger reserve or not has set the pitch for a clash between two titans of the ruling party. One is dead set on developing the sanctuary into a tiger reserve, and the other is against it. Both have stood pat over the issue and are unyielding. However wayward they may be on their stand, what have really sown the seeds of dispute between them are the lands around the sanctuary owned by the opponent of the proposed tiger reserve and other politicians. Once the proposed tiger reserve comes up, the commercial value of the lands will decline. Ergo, the politician is contesting the proposal. But the politician who wishes to see tigers flourish in the area is hardly bothered about such opposition, for he, too, wields power. Whenever he holds meetings with the officials of the forest department, he dresses them down for their failure to carry out the proposal for making the sanctuary into a tiger spot. Now that the prize ring is ready, the spectators are awaiting the entry of the combatants to see who hits the canvas.
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Internal conflict has always caused the Congress’s plunge in state politics. The fight among its leaders for one-upmanship in the organisation led to its drubbing in assembly and parliamentary elections in Madhya Pradesh. But it seems to have failed to teach them a lesson that such wrangling will only ruin them. Anyway, a senior leader of the party lobbied for the appointment of a chum in the AICC. His purpose was to strengthen his base further in the party’s national headquarters through his friend. The leader succeeded, and a letter appointing the person concerned was also issued through social media to the delight of the senior leader’s backers; but their joy was transient. The adversaries of the senior leader talked the party bosses into cancelling the appointment of that person in the AICC only to give a bloody nose to their opponent. They were happy, for they foiled his attempts to bolster his base in the party’s national unit as well as in its MP unit.
A cabinet minister has recently kicked up dust by means of his controversial statements. One of his remarks set off so many protests that he had to tender an apology, but there seems to be no end in sight to his troubles. Just as he was trying to get out of the muddle, a creation of his own, a case against him was filed in the high court, which is ready to hear the petition. The minister recently organised a function where the photograph of the Prime Minister and that of the Chief Minister were missing, which spawned resentment among the BJP workers and leaders. The minister, who can be subtle when the need arises, has deliberately cut a wide swath for his greenhorn-like acts.
