Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, among those in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who followed Ajit Pawar in joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), may be in deep trouble all over again. He was implicated in the Maharashtra Sadan case and spent two years in jail. Apparently, Sharad Pawar had helped him in coming out on bail. But now that he has made a frontal attack on the NCP chief, indications are that he may be in trouble again. He had earlier accused Pawar of favouring the BJP. Now nothing prevents the NCP head honcho from using precisely those links to turn the heat on him. In any case, he is not on the best of terms with Ajitdada Pawar also.
Exposé in offing
There is this matter about a politician allegedly having Singapore citizenship. Complaints were made in the past by certain people, but nothing happened. The whole matter was neatly pushed under the carpet. However, it is learnt that the issue will be revived before the Lok Sabha elections next year so that this leader is politically neutralised well in time. If it is proved that this neta is indeed a Singaporean citizen, then it will create quite a 'hulchul' in our politics.
Anti-raddi andolan
Newspaper vendors are totally fed up with the antics of a city newspaper. According to them, this particular paper is dumping copies on them under the guise of "sampling" to show highly inflated figures and in the process it is only increasing "raddi". Despite repeated complaints from the vendors, there is no response from the newspaper management. Hence, the vendors have unanimously decided not to lift copies of this newspaper in some of the eastern suburbs from September 1. Now the real game will start. Is the newspaper heading for trouble?
Hidden agenda
The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) probe into the Hindenburg report, which went against the Adanis, has revealed that 12 companies made a killing by the short selling in shares of the Adani group. According to the ED, these short-sellers took positions three days before the release of the Hindenburg report. So the question arises how they had advance access to the report? Did a big group, which is suspected to be behind the commissioning of the report, leak the details selectively to these companies? This is a crucial question which the ED has not answered yet. If it gets down to the truth of the report, then it will unravel a bitter corporate war that is being waged from behind the scenes.
Tailpiece
A section of the bureaucracy had opposed the appointment of Saurabh Tripathi as chief of the state intelligence department since he was suspended earlier for alleged extortion. However, Delhi overruled the objections. The 'funda' is that Tripathi will gather detailed intelligence about the opposition in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls. Samajh gaye an?
Compiled by S Balakrishnan
