Warmth missing in Cong welcome

hen the new All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge Guruchain Singh Charak came to Sadaquat Ashram, the state Congress headquarters, for the first time, he did not get as warm a welcome as his predecessors did. There was only a welcome gate on the road leading to it; no posters and banners. One can easily remember the rousing welcome his predecessors like Jagdish Tytler and Mukul Wasnik got. There used to be welcome gates right from the airport and the city was virtually covered with posters and banners carrying images of various leaders of the party and their supporters. Even when the state party president returned from Delhi Congressmen used to greet him at the airport. But that was pre-election times and there were a lot of ticket aspirants,” said a senior Congress leader. The Congress workers pointed out that while Wasnik and Tytler were familiar faces the new Bihar-in charge has an identity crisis as not many of them had even heard of his name.

Change of fortunes

he elevation of Ranjan Prasad Yadav, the former friend-turned-foe of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, to the post of deputy leader of the JD (U) in the Lok Sabha has triggered talks of good days and bad days in a politician's life. Once considered virtually number-two in the Lalu era, Ranjan had gone into political oblivion when he parted ways with Lalu. “Ranjan was among the few MPs who stuck with Nitish during the Assembly polls and toured Raghopur and Sonepur extensively to ensure the defeat of Rabri Devi. It is natural that he should be awarded,” said a senior JD (U) leader. The clash between the two old friends-turned-enemies in Parliament has been the talk of political circles in Patna. When Ranjan said Lalu ran a gunda (goon) raj in Bihar, the RJD chief shot back at him saying the biggest gunda of his raj (reign) was Ranjan. While Ranjan appears to be entering heydays it is a bad patch for another JD (U) MP Mangani Lal Mandal. “First I was suspended from the party, then I was accused of stopping a train. Nothing seems to be working right,” Mandal told an acquaintance.

Fight against Nitish

B>Suspended JD (U) MP Upendra Singh Kushwaha has been vowing to fight against chief minister Nitish Kumar forever. He told his supporters that he was willing to fight another 15 years and emerge as the alternative of Nitish. “The fight against Nitish may take longer than Upendra has predicted. It may take a few life times because he keeps losing in elections. Even when he was a JD (U) candidate in 2005 he lost twice,” said a senior JD (U) leader, declaring that the dissident leader had false notions about himself./B>

Battle between coaching institutes

B>Now that the IIT-JEE exams are over, the game between various coaching institutes will start. The day the result will be announced, successful candidates will be included in the list of five or six coaching institutes, each claiming that the successful candidate was their student. Slurring the name of the rival is the name of the game.