Fly on the wall
Harish Gupta
Untold story of Nitin Nabin making the Cut
Speculation is rife in BJP circles over how a relatively little-known leader like Nitin Nabin emerged as the party’s new working president—seemingly out of the blue. Multiple versions are doing the rounds in Delhi.
One account suggests that BJP president J P Nadda shortlisted Nabin’s name when Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked for suitable options. The logic was straightforward: Nabin was born and educated in Bihar and had a fair grasp of the state’s political terrain. Another, more intriguing, whisper is that Modi himself sought a list of BJP ministers across states in the 45–50 age bracket—leaders seen as performers, ideologically rooted in the RSS, and ready for bigger organisational responsibility.
Amid these competing narratives, one striking detail has surfaced from Chhattisgarh. It turns out that the responsibility of coordinating and executing the entire exercise was entrusted by Modi to his most trusted lieutenant, Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The reason is revealing. Nitin Nabin had earlier worked under Shah during the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, a phase during which a rapport was forged. That connection appears to have mattered.
Recently, Shah traveled to Raipur and sent word to Nabin in Patna to meet him personally. Nabin rushed to Raipur, where the meeting with Shah turned into a detailed, interactive conversation. After some time, Shah asked him to meet Nadda and BJP general secretary (organization) B L Santosh. What followed later is just history. Party insiders say it is vintage Modi: quiet screening, tight control, and a final decision that leaves even the chosen candidate stunned.
The Self-Inflicted Decline of Mayawati’s BSP
The year saw the decline and fall of the BSP which was at its zenith in 2007. The BSP was not merely a Dalit party but a national disruptor. A full majority in Uttar Pradesh turned Mayawati into a symbol of social justice politics that could command power, not just protest. Two years later, the BSP emerged as India’s third-largest party by vote share, winning 21 Lok Sabha seats.
The fall since has been relentless—and self-inflicted. Mayawati’s insistence on political isolation, her distrust of alliances, and her centralised command structure steadily hollowed out the party. While rivals adapted to coalition politics, the BSP withdrew into a rigid, top-down shell. Cadres thinned, second-rung leadership vanished, and organisational depth collapsed. Mayawati is watching with growing unease as the Congress gains traction among Dalit voters after the BSP failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat in 2024, and its vote share in UP plunged to just 9.39% — less than half of what it secured in 2019. Even the BJP started getting Dalit votes in large chunks.
But the BSP’s core Jatav Dalit vote in UP remains largely intact. However, votes without alliances no longer convert into seats in a polarised, first-past-the-post system. The 2024 Lok Sabha elections laid this bare: 2.07% vote share, zero MPs, and a fall out of national relevance. With its last Rajya Sabha tenure ending soon and no revival strategy in sight, the BSP now stands on the brink of parliamentary extinction. Mayawati’s greatest political achievement may also be her most enduring undoing.
Myth
of Merit Busted as OBC Students Outperform
The
idea that caste-based reservations undermine academic merit has taken
a hit — not from politics, but from hard data. In an
unexpected trend from this year’s Class XII board results, students
from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) have surpassed their general
category counterparts in at least eight state school boards,
including those of Maharashtra, Bengal, Rajasthan, and
Jharkhand.
The figures come from the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), which compiles school board scores to determine eligibility for admissions to IITs and NITs. One of the conditions for entry into these institutes is being in the top 20 percentile of a board or scoring at least 75%. JoSAA’s latest data, covering 22 state boards along with CBSE and the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE), show that the cutoff scores for the top 20 percentile among non-creamy layer OBC students were higher than for general category students across several boards.
Even under the Nagaland board, Scheduled Caste students outperformed general category students, while Scheduled Tribe students matched general-category performance under the Goa board. As the reservation debate resurfaces periodically, these board exam trends may serve as a quiet but powerful counter to those who still view affirmative action as an obstacle to excellence.
Congress’ Big Days, Bigger Loose Cannons
Just when the Congress was trying to project unity and renewed purpose on its foundation day, veteran leader Digvijaya Singh ensured the spotlight shifted elsewhere. Instead of the party’s legacy, message and future road map dominating headlines, it was Singh’s controversial remarks that ended up stealing the show. The timing could not have been worse. The foundation day event was punctured handing political rivals easy ammunition.
For the Congress, this was an all-too-familiar script. Not long ago, Shashi Tharoor’s public remarks had similarly unsettled the party. No disciplinary action followed—only hurried clarifications and a collective attempt to move on.
The pattern is revealing. Senior leaders speak out of turn, headlines are generated, and the party is left red-faced. Yet consequences remain elusive. The high command appears reluctant to act against heavyweight figures, wary of provoking internal backlash or feeding a narrative of intolerance.
The result is a recurring problem for the Congress: moments meant to build momentum are repeatedly overshadowed by self-inflicted controversies. Digvijaya Singh may escape formal action, just as Tharoor did earlier, but the damage is already done. On a day meant to celebrate the party’s foundation, Congress once again found itself explaining itself—rather than setting the agenda.
