Khurshid for your thoughts
The recent defiance of law minister Salman Khurshid has left many of his party colleagues wondering. Many Congress leaders were heard giving their own explanations for Khurshid’s flurry of statements on Muslim quotas. What’s doubly strange is that Khurshid, unlike some other Congressmen, doesn’t have a reputation for putting his foot in his mouth. A senior Congress leader connected it to the tough contest that his wife Louise Khurshid is facing in Farrukhabad assembly constituency. Other dots are being joined to explain Khurshid’s ‘outburst’ as we speak.
BJP 1 EC 0
Still on Salman Khurshid, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi called a meeting of election commissioners on Satu-rday. This was after the CEC learnt that the BJP would be lodging an official complaint against Khurshid for ‘flouting’ EC norms by allegedly making untoward remarks against the commissioner. But before the commission could send the letter to President Pratibha Patil by a “special messenger”, the BJP had already released its ‘complaint’ to the media. Khurshid had made his remarks against the EC on Friday, but the commission took almost a day to write to the president. So the BJP managed to score a point.
The devoted Swamy
Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy made a quiet trip to Sri Lanka to offer prayers at the famous Murugan temple at Kadirgrama on the occasion of Thai Poosam, a festival that commemorates Lord Subram-anya’s slaying of a demon. With Swamy not so successful in his endeavour so far in the 2G case, speculation is rife as to whether he has made a special wish to the deity.
The MP the party forgot
In the course of her UP poll campaign last week, BJP MP Hema Malini found that there were no takers for her programme within her own party. With none from the local BJP at the air force station in Gorakhpur to receive her in the afternoon, the former film star was standing alone near the tarmac with her luggage when Rajnath Singh, himself back from a five-rally campaign, offered to drop her to the hotel. Hema’s secretary, attempting to locate BJP workers there, also hopped into Singh’s cavalcade. The BJP workers, however, insisted that they had sent people to receive Hema, but apparently they were not allowed near the runway. Hema Malini, one is told, was not at all surprised by the treatment meted out to her.
The MP the party forgot
In the course of her UP poll campaign last week, BJP MP Hema Malini found that there were no takers for her programme within her own party. With none from the local BJP at the air force station in Gorakhpur to receive her in the afternoon, the former film star was standing alone near the tarmac with her luggage when Rajnath Singh, himself back from a five-rally campaign, offered to drop her to the hotel. Hema’s secretary, attempting to locate BJP workers there, also hopped into Singh’s cavalcade. The BJP workers, however, insisted that they had sent people to receive Hema, but apparently they were not allowed near the runway. Hema Malini, one is told, was not at all surprised by the treatment meted out to her.