Mission to be made possible And you thought you had seen the last of him? Wrong. The babu is back with a vengeance and there are no traces of the humiliating defeat of the last Lok Sabha elections when as Congress candidate of the Calcutta Northwest constituency he had had his deposit forfeited. We are talking of Siddhartha Sankar Ray, who believes he can still send shivers down the political spine of West Bengal, even take the communists head-on. This is precisely what he has been planning. Ray recently dropped in at the state Congress committee office to discuss organizational matters with the newly elected state chief, Pranab Mukherjee. But why the eagerness after such a long time? Congress sources say it is because Ray is on the lookout for a safe assembly seat from where he can sail through. Manuda apparently has designs on the Chowringhee assembly seat from which he had won in the early Nineties. Ray's 'dissociates' say he has also been trying to impress the Trinamool lady with his gameplan in the hope she will not put up a formidable candidate for the seat and make things difficult for him. There is little sympathy for him from within the Trinamool though. A party worker was heard saying they wouldn't allow didi to help Manuda, who comes alive only during elections. What a way to kill an old man's dreams! Who'll be the chosen man? Many in the AICC have been having sweet dreams of heading the media cell of the committee. The post has been lying vacant since Pranab Mukherjee made his quiet exit for the distant shores of West Bengal. Madam has, however, been particularly unresponsive on this score. She wants to delay appointment to the position till organizational polls are over later this year. Till then the responsibility will be shouldered by a minion, like a party general secretary. Ambika Soni, in all probability. Sonia Gandhi's plan to sit tight on the matter however comes as a great disappointment to Kamal Nath. But he wouldn't show it. The man argues he has no time for trivia: 'I am travelling most of the time. I am not a drawing room warrior as you know.' No. That is perhaps why he plans to contest the Congress working committee polls again. He narrowly missed a CWC berth - four votes - at the Calcutta AICC plenary three years ago. Other notables who have set their sights on the media department are Arjun Singh, Vasant Sathe, Subbirami Reddy, Vishwa Bandhu Gupta and Ajit Jogi. A whole galaxy. But who'll be the real star? More troubles from one man Talking of Vasant Sathe. The recent doings of the former Union minister has been cause of great embarrassment for the party leadership. In an editorial of the Congress mouthpiece, Congress Sandesh, Sathe toed the Swadeshi Jagran Manch line - debar the entry of multinationals in India. There are other impossibles Sathe wants - the income tax net should include 18 per cent of the population, there should be a consensus between, guess who, Sonia Gandhi and AB Vajpayee on, god forbid, Sathe's vision of the economy as enumerated in his publication, Arthik Swaraj. The AICC's economy thinktank, Manmohan Singh and Jairam Ramesh in it, hasn't bothered to read up Sathe's gem. The grapevine has it that Sathe had discussed Sonia's 'inexperience' in his editorial and had to be really persuaded to cross out the portion. Madam reportedly is having serious thoughts about abandoning the Sandesh's publication. And rightly so, with editors like Sathe, who needs enemies? What's keeping this man? Granted, the president of India nowadays has to do some serious thinking, especially on the eve of the Independence and Republic Days, about what misfortunes have befallen the country. But could he really be that busy? KR Narayanan has not been able to spare even a few moments for the new election commissioner, TS Krishnamurthy, who wants to pay him a courtesy call. Krishnamurthy is a constitutional functionary and there is nothing seriously wrong about his deeming it proper to call on senior dignitaries of the New Delhi establishment. After joining as the third election commissioner, he has therefore visited, in keeping with his sense of propriety, the vice-president, the presiding officers of the two houses of Parliament and the chief justice of India. Krishnamurthy apparently has sent several reminders to the president about his impending visit. The president however is yet to grant him an audience. What could be the matter? Republic Day is almost five months away. Footnote/Hair lies the tale/ Everyone - well, almost - knows he is a Rajput. And he too makes no bones about it. He likes Rajput hangarounds and Rajput men in his department. Yet many were surprised to see him flaunting his identity so unsubtly. Foreign minister Jaswant Singh was in a Rajasthani turban at the Independence Day function at the Red Fort. Those who do not know him too well drew the obvious conclusion. He was portraying himself as one with his kinsmen back home in the desert state. But a turban tied in the typical Rajasthani style with the tuft flowing out from the top presented a rather incongruous picture, especially since he wore it with his trademark finely cut safari suit. His ministerial colleagues made discreet inquiries. It dawned that Jaswant was making no political statement, at least not this time. It so happened that upon the death of his mother, the external affairs minister had tonsured his head. What he was trying to prevent was any unkind comparison with Bollywood villains. Jaswant Singh sported a turban, and occasionally even a cap, till he had a full crop of hair again. Nothing to worry our heads over.