Low-key wedding plan for Ragini

Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s daughter Ragini is tying the knot with Samajwadi Party leader Jitendra Yadav’s son, Rahul, from Uttar Pradesh. But old-timers in the state are baffled at the way the RJD boss is planning the wedding of his fourth daughter. he fanfare with which Lalu married off his elder daughters, Misa and Rohini, from the chief minister’s official residence 1 Aney Marg, is still fresh in everyone’s mind. The two weddings were virtually carnivals in Patna. Now, out of power, the RJD boss has apparently decided to keep Ragini’s wedding a low-key affair confined to Delhi. He had also married off his third daughter from New Delhi when he was a railway minister. Nitish Kumar was by then at 1 Aney Marg. Sources said the RJD boss has decided to invite his friend-turned-foe and chief minister Nitish Kumar to Ragini’s wedding.

UP poll rush clips cabinet

Nearly half of Nitish Kumar's cabinet is likely to shift base to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh temporarily. Most of his ministerial colleagues from the BJP are high on the list. The party high command has asked Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi to engage his colleagues, besides other leaders from the party, in the crucial poll. Nitish, too, has decided to campaign for his own party in UP. But he is believed to have disallowed the Dal ministers from going there. Why has then Nitish allowed his colleagues from the BJP to go in hordes to the other state, leaving their work behind in Bihar, people wonder. One BJP minister had a reply to that. “For a while, we are not under Nitish’s whip. It is poll time. We have to respond to our party high command’s call,” he said. The grapevine has it that Nitish will keep a close watch on his BJP ministers to ensure that they don’t get too close to his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, who is also likely to campaign in UP.

Silent watcher

The embattled Lalu Prasad is believed to be looking for an opportunity in Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s tantrums over the Congress’s policies. Sources close to the RJD boss said he was full of mirth over the developments in Bengal. “If the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party does well in Uttar Pradesh, it will amount to the return of our fortunes. Mulayam and I will combine to replace Mamata’s Trinamul as the Congress's ally at the Centre,” Lalu is believed to have confided to his aides. Of late, the bonhomie between Lalu and Mulayam is growing, both at the political and personal level, with Lalu marrying off his daughter to a SP leader’s son, who is contesting on a Congress ticket in UP.

Most favourite

Water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, of late, appears to be a “favourite” of the chief minister, Nitish Kumar. Nitish has taken Choudhary to all the Seva Yatras he has undertaken so far. In fact, the water resources minister has become a source of envy for his other colleagues, who find it hard to meet the chief minister without prior appointments. “What is so special about Choudhary that Nitishji is taking him (to the Seva Yatras) all the time? Why does he prefer a particular minister to others who are also working hard? The chief minister must be fair to all,” a minister said. He seems to be harbouring a grudge for not being able to catch Nitish’s eye.