Fly on the wall
The Fall of a Doon School buddy
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath was the blue-eyed boy of the Gandhi family for almost 60 years and attained the status of “Third son of Indira Gandhi.” He was among those privileged ones who lived with Rajiv and Sanjay at the Teen Murti residence of late PM Jawaharlal Nehru during school holidays as he became their buddy at the Doon School. The Doon school club called the shots when Rajiv Gandhi became the PM. It was this DOSCO club which eventually gave birth to many of the scams the country witnessed over the decades. Kamal Nath is perhaps the last member of this club to fall from grace when he did not listen to persistent pleas of AICC state incharge of Madhya Pradesh; be it Jai Prakash Agrawal or Randeep Surjewala regarding distribution of tickets. Eventually, the Congress lost polls and Rahul Gandhi decided to sack him within 24 hours as PCC Chief. An enraged Kamal Nath tried to cross over to the BJP but his move backfired.
Insiders in the Congress say that Rahul Gandhi was always against making Kamal Nath Chief Minister but Sonia Gandhi prevailed. It was always suspected that the Modi government is soft towards Kamal Nath and not acting against his elder son Bakul Nath, an NRI in the USA, despite his name figuring in the list of beneficiaries in AgustaWestland Deal.
Bakul Nath's name surfaced after the ED extradited Rajiv Saxena from Dubai in January 2019. He was a conduit in the Rs 3,000-crore VVIP chopper deal case. Saxena's statement to the ED was over 1,000 pages and gave account of involvement of defence dealer Sushen Mohan Gupta, Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri, Bakul Puri among others.
Ratul Puri was arrested by the ED in 2019 as the proceeds of crime were routed through a company owned by Savannah Trust. Bakul Nath, a beneficiary, has been unable to come to India for the past five years. Kamal Nath has denied any wrongdoing in these cases and his involvement. Anyway, his younger son and sitting Lok Sabha MP Nakul Nath has been retained as party candidate from Chhindwara as every seat matters in this do or die battle.
How Meenakshi Lekhi lost the plot
Meenakshi Lekhi had all the ingredients of becoming the Chief Ministerial face of the BJP in Delhi. She belonged to the most respected family of legendary lawyer P N Lekhi who always fought cases in courts on behalf of the RSS-Jana Sangh and commanded considerable respect. Lekhi was a party loyalist and a good orator in addition to being a good lawyer too. She was promoted rather fast in the party ranks and emerged as BJP's Lok Sabha candidate in 2014 from the prestigious New Delhi constituency. Almost all senior party leaders including late Arun Jaitley recommended her name and she was elected with a thumping majority. She made a mark by her performance in the Lok Sabha and got nominated for the second term in 2019. Later, she was inducted in the Modi government as Minister of State for External Affairs & Culture. It transpires that she fell out with her senior ministerial colleague and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over crossing a line and even went public on a sensitive issue. She used to blow her top often and kept workers waiting for hours together. It seems success went into her head and party workers started complaining to the high command. As the power of her star faded, she lost the ticket and another emerging woman lawyer in Bansuri Swaraj emerged on the scene. Bansuri also carried with her the legacy of late Sushma Swaraj. Meenakshi Lekhi is cooling her heels now hoping for rehabilitation in the organization. If she has lost the plot, it's due to her own doing.
How Sukhu wrote his own obituary
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was a surprise choice as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and was nowhere in the race for the coveted post. He was considered close to the Gandhi siblings; Rahul & Priyanka, and also a close confidant of senior party leader Anand Sharma too. Sharma is considered close to Sonia Gandhi though Rahul doesn't like him. When the Congress won the polls, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was chosen, nipping the prospects of Pratibha Singh, wife of late Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The Gandhis deputed another confidant Rajiv Shukla as state incharge to ensure that government remains stable. Since the Congress won 40 out of 68 Assembly seats, Sukhu and Shukla thought that BJP can't pose a threat. But unthinkable happened as the Sukhu-Shukla duo could never imagine that six of their own party MLAs could vote for the BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate. If Sukhu was complaisant, Shukla's hands were full with other big responsibilities like the BCCI, UP and looking after the Gandhi family. Poor Sukhu will pay the price and the Gandhis will lose a state as the BJP has tasted blood. Its only a matter of time and Sukhu's days are numbered.
