Modi’s Man Plots Punjab Mission
No Punjab tour, no fiery speeches — Modi’s trusted strategist is working the phones and plotting the 2027 battle from Delhi.
While BJP leaders make headlines with speeches, rallies and political sound bites, Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Paatil, the party’s election in-charge for Punjab, has chosen a different route. Since his appointment on August 21, 2026, he has maintained a low-profile.
Paatil has not traveled to Punjab or made a public spectacle of his assignment. But to mistake his silence for inactivity could be a costly misreading of the BJP’s game plan. The Maharashtra-born leader rose from a police constable in Surat to become one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most trusted political lieutenants. He is known for his organisational grip, election management and meticulous planning. His stint as Gujarat BJP president only strengthened his reputation as a troubleshooter who prefers results to rhetoric.
There is another intriguing aspect to his appointment. Paatil's choice suggests that Punjab is no routine assignment for the BJP leadership. Interestingly, no Union Minister has been given the charge of UP so far and Maharashtra's Vinod Tawade, general secretary, holds the key state. Party general secretary Satish Poonia, incharge of Punjab affairs, has hit the ground leaving Paatil to focus on the broader electoral strategy. Instead of taking the conventional route, Paatil has reportedly turned his Delhi residence into a political command center. Top Punjab BJP leaders have been drawn into consultations to work out the electoral blueprint. His meeting with Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has added another layer of intrigue.
Is the BJP merely exploring electoral arithmetic, or is a larger realignment being quietly tested? Paatil's silence may be concealing more political activity than meets the eye.
Back-Seat Driving in Haryana
Haryana’s power corridors witnessed an unusual battle.
At the heart of the storm is Union Power Minister and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's alleged behind-the-scenes influence in virtually running the state. But back-seat driving has a price too.
The flash point came when Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) granted a license to a private company for 25-year electricity distribution and supply for Gurugram and Nuh. The company is founded by a powerful person who is also a co-founder of a prominent hospital chain. It triggered a political and industrial confrontation as electricity employees and engineers launched statewide protests and burnt effigies of Khattar, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and HERC chairman Mukesh Garg. Their charge was that private power distribution was being ushered in through the back door by HERC members appointed during Khattar’s tenure. These remain allegations, not established findings.
The embarrassment was compounded when the state government insisted that it neither invited applications for the licence nor supported privatisation. State Power Minister Anil Vij maintained that the government opposed the move and would challenge the order before the Appellate Tribunal or even the Supreme Court. Eventually, the state government reversed course and revoked the permission. This triggered another crisis as people wondered if the state government opposed the move, and how the license was given.
For Saini, the episode has left behind an awkward question for the BJP: who calls the shots in Haryana—the chief minister or his powerful predecessor?
Jaishankar’s Strange Analogy
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is widely regarded as one of the most articulate and sensible ministers in the Modi government. But his recent comparison involving former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 1972 Summit meeting with Pakistan’s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Shimla and his own meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Mumbai raised eyebrows.
The controversy began when Marco Rubio held bilateral talks with Jaishankar in Mumbai during his recent visit to India. Rahul Gandhi mocked the Modi government, suggesting that Rubio had “summoned his employee” to Mumbai. Rahul’s jibe was hardly convincing. Diplomatic meetings outside Delhi are not unusual, and India has hosted visiting dignitaries in several other cities.
When asked about the criticism, Jaishankar responded sharply, urging politicians to behave like “educated and sensible people”. Fair enough!
But his subsequent defence was less persuasive. He invoked Indira Gandhi’s 1972 Summit meeting with Bhutto in Shimla, asking whether she too had been summoned.
Jaishankar, a seasoned diplomat, surely knows that the Shimla summit followed Pakistan’s crushing defeat in the 1971 war. Bhutto, then Pakistan’s president, came to negotiate the terms of a post-war settlement with India. The summit was shaped by an entirely different political and military context. For a minister celebrated for his diplomatic finesse, the Shimla analogy was less a sixer than a shot that went wide.
Bihar’s Missing Big Guns
The election for the Patna Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies in Bihar Legislative Council was marked by several ironies. The most striking irony was that some of Bihar’s top leaders did not figure in the voters list or those who figured did not cast their votes.
Former Bihar Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad live in Patna and are registered voters, but neither voted. Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi was not eligible as a voter because she is not a graduate. BJP national president Nitin Nabin, a Patna resident, was ineligible as he is not a graduate. Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, too, is not eligible to become a voter.
Nishant Kumar, son of Nitish Kumar and the state Health Minister, being projected as the future of the Janata Dal (United), was earlier believed to be an engineer. However, when he filed his nomination for the Legislative Council, it emerged that he had discontinued his engineering studies after five semesters. He, too, was ineligible to register as a voter. Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, has studied up to Class IX and is also ineligible.
What an irony! The Chief Minister, LoP, president of the world’s largest political party, presidents of both regional parties and former Chief Ministers either did not qualify to become voters or did not vote.
