Yogi’s mounting troubles
There was a time when the graph of saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath was on top of the ladder among all chief ministers of the party. The 47-year young ‘Sanyasi’ had even pushed veteran Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan behind. The whispers in the corridors of power were that the Yogi had joined the club of the likes of Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chouhan as a potential successor to the PM. Not anymore! Adityanath’s handling of cases particularly relating to crime against women, has hit him hard. Be it Kuldeep Singh Senger case or Swami Chinmayananda, the UP CM failed to act swiftly. No doubt, he has waged a war against hardened criminals. But the Hathras case has damaged Yogi’s image considerably. It also emerged that he may have been a prisoner of a handful of bureaucrats in Lucknow. The charge favouring a community be belongs to is also talk of the town and doesn’t act against them. The Central leadership of the party is also unhappy with him as he doesn’t listen to it in some instances. He doesn’t have a good rapport with Amit Shah either for obvious reasons and most of his baiters in Lucknow find patronage in Delhi. His running battle with Sunil Bansal, organizational incharge of UP, has added to his woes. In a way, he is now fighting a lonely battle when troubles are mounting.
Why Jagan is in deep mess!
If Yogi Adityanath is facing rough weather in Lucknow, his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is in a deep mess too. Ostensibly, he is the first Chief Minister in the country to write a letter against a sitting Supreme Court judge justice N V Ramana and several judges of the AP High Court to the Chief Justice of India seeking probe. Interestingly, the charges have been leveled against the SC judge who is in line to become the next CJI in April 2021. Why did Jagan take such an unprecedented step? Insiders say that Jagan did it as he is perhaps the only sitting CM in the country who has 31 criminal cases against him. Of them 11 are being probed by the CBI and seven by the Enforcement Directorate for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The trial in cases is going on at a snail’s pace. On September 16, Justice Ramana ordered high courts across the country that criminal cases against all sitting & former MPs, MLAs, MLACs be completed within one year. All stays granted by any court in the country be vacated and SC registry will monitor them. Who will be the first to suffer if a trial is launched on a day-to-day basis? Obviously, Jagan woke up one month after the verdict and shot off the controversial letter against the Judge itself. Can Jagan’s letter torpedo action in cases against him? Doesn’t look so!
Big challenge for Chirag Paswan
Union Food & Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s death has taken place at a time when his son Chirag Paswan is in the midst of a major political gambit. Chirag’s father played many political gambles in his long political career and luck was always on his side. He was such a political weathercock that whichever alliance he joined before a Lok Sabha, the victory fell on his feet. Now all eyes are set on Chirag Paswan who lay in store for him. Of course, he will get huge sympathy and cut into Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) vote bank. During the 2015 Assembly polls in Bihar, LJP contested with BJP on 42 seats. It could barely win 2 seats and secured 4.38% votes. Pollsters say the LJP is capable of damaging JD(U) in at least 25 seats. This may help BJP emerge as the single largest party in Bihar after the polls on November 10. Will BJP reward Chirag then ? No one knows! Will the BJP give Rajya Sabha seat to Paswan’s widow Reena and induct Chirag into the Union ministry after the polls? No one knows what is cooking in the PM’s mind.
Tushar Mehta next AG
It is almost certain that Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta will be the next Attorney General of India after octogenarian K K Venugopal hangs up his boots. The Modi government was keen for the continuation of Venugopal in the post. But Venugopal declined the offer politely and told the PM that he will have to find a successor sooner than expected. With great difficulty, he was persuaded to continue for a period of one year. Tushar Mehta, a close confidant of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is next in line. He has gained enough experience ever since he came to Delhi in 2014- first as Additional Solicitor-General and later as SG in 2017. In fact, Venugopal has not been appearing in most of the cases for the government lately. Instead, Tushar Mehta is representing the government and holding the fort.
