Tamil Nadu BJP workers flew to Delhi seeking the removal of Annamalai, the opinionated BJP state chief. But the party high command still has faith in the former police officer, despite his poor advice in the Lok Sabha polls. Amit Shah ticked off the delegation, asking them not travel to Delhi to complain against leaders. However, when Shah arrived in Chennai on April 10 for the expected tie-up with the AIADMK, he found its leader E K Palaniswami evasive about the proposed alliance. At Shah’s press conference in Chennai, the backdrop with the NDA logo was hastily replaced with the BJP’s symbol. At 4 pm the next day, Shah tweeted that Annamalai was stepping down as state chief and that the BJP-AIADMK tie-up was back on track at 5 pm. Significantly, new BJP state chief Nainar Nagendran was formerly with the AIADMK. EPS made clear that he is no pushover. He even expressed doubts on the BJP being represented in case of an AIADMK cabinet.
Absence noted
Those who attended the AICC meet in Ahmedabad earlier this month, praised the organisational skills of the Gujarat Congress, headed by Shaktisinh Gohil, comparing them very favourably with previous mismanagement at the Udaipur and Jaipur sessions, when Ashok Gehlot was CM. Ironically, the state Congress has not demonstrated similar organisation skills on the campaign trail, with the party losing in seven consecutive Assembly polls. One reason for selecting Gujarat was to reclaim Sardar Patel’s legacy, which has been assiduously appropriated by the BJP. But the meet venue, Shahi Baug, renamed the Sardar Patel Memorial Museum, is actually a Mughal palace where Shah Jahan once lived and with which the Sardar had no association in his lifetime. Priyanka Gandhi’s absence was much commented upon. While it was said she had sought advance permission to be absent, an argument over a last-minute invite to a Congressperson as a permanent invitee to the CWC was an additional reason.
Perils of interfering
Two fiery TMC MPs, Kalyan Banerjee and Mahua Moitra, traded insults in full public view outside the Election Commission in Delhi last week. But it was the non-Bengali TMC MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur, former cricketer Kirti Azad, who got pulled up by party chief Mamata Banerjee. Azad was accused of leaking the explosive exchanges between the two feuding MPs on the TMC MPs’ WhatsApp group to a journalist. The screenshot of the messages even fell into the hands of the BJP media adviser, who used it to embarrass the TMC. The quarrel originated because party chief whip Banerjee ignored Moitra while collecting signatures for a TMC plea to the poll panel. When she turned up for the MPs’ protest the next day, she was furious to discover that she had not been consulted. When she chided Banerjee, who colleagues claim has become short-tempered of late — he reportedly broke a glass bottle during a heated exchange on the Waqf Bill at a parliamentary standing committee meeting — he lashed out at Moitra, dubbing her a “versatile international lady”. She retaliated by asking the bewildered BSF and CRPF forces guarding the poll panel office to arrest him. Kirti Azad and Derek O’Brien tried unsuccessfully to cool tempers.
Hogging limelight
Appointing Rekha Gupta, a first-time MLA, as CM has upset the established BJP hierarchy in the Capital and left some Delhi party stalwarts unhappy. Traditionally, Delhi MPs outrank the CM. But of late, the media has been focusing on Gupta, who keeps photojournalists on their toes with her packed schedule. For some Delhi BJP MPs, the last straw was Ambedkar Jayanti at the old Lok Sabha’s Central Hall, when Gupta was seen posing next to a portrait of B R Ambedkar with Speaker Om Birla, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and BJP chief J P Nadda.
Star-crossed ownership
Few are aware that PM A B Vajpayee had promised to return South Court, the villa built by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to his only daughter Dina Wadia, mother of industrialist Nusli Wadia. The 2.5-acre compound lying derelict for decades is back in the news, as the MEA is now planning to convert it into a diplomatic enclave. In 2001, the file was cleared by then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, with the Home Ministry, Urban Development Ministry and the Department of Evacuee Property consenting to a long-term lease, provided the property was not exploited for commercial gain. Shortly afterwards, Yashwant Sinha became External Affairs Minister and his foreign secretary stymied the transfer.
