Did Smriti Irani spook Rahul Gandhi into contesting from a second seat in the south? Or was it Mayawati? Smriti Irani and the BJP would like to have us believe that Rahul bought himself insurance cover by adding Wayanad in Kerala to his Amethi bow. In fact, Irani has been firing away about his “cowardice” to boost her stock in Amethi, which she lost in 2014 to the Congress president.

However, the story in Congress circles is quite different. According to those familiar with the development, the Rahul camp has been worried about the Amethi seat after it received news that Mayawati was threatening to field a candidate from the Gandhi family bastion.

The BSP chief had agreed not to put up candidates in the Gandhi family seats of Rae Bareli and Amethi. But her relations with the Congress have soured since then, especially after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra paid a visit to youthful Jatav leader and head of Bhim Army, Chandrashekhar Azad in hospital a couple of weeks ago.

At a meeting with her coordinators, Mayawati is believed to have warned that she will observe the campaign and movements of Congress leaders. And if she feels that the Congress is trying to disrupt the gathbandhan by chipping away at its votes then she would break the earlier understanding. She said the BSP would contest from both Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Word of her warning reached the Congress, as Mayawati must have intended. After the scare Rahul got in 2014 in Amethi, where his victory margin slumped by 50 per cent, the Congress president decided not to take any chances. Wayanad is his safety valve against any last minute disruption by Mayawati.

Rahul has strengthened his election team in Amethi and plugged the gaps that helped Irani to shave off his votes. But it is clear that there is a great deal of mistrust between the Congress and Mayawati.

Advani speaks

Veteran BJP leader L K Advani broke his silence of five years with a new blog criticising the tone and tenor of the BJP’s election campaign. As expected, his decision to speak up sent ripples through the party.

Advani wrote his last blog on 23 April 2014. So, the latest one, uploaded on 4 April 2019, came almost exactly five years later, sparking speculation about his future plans.

His lengthy silence was not a personal decision. It was imposed by the party leadership which felt that he was too outspoken in some of his blogs. Although guarded in his comments, Advani did not hide his dismay about the manner in which the BJP was changing with the rise of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Some of the blogs proved quite embarrassing, especially because the media picked up on them and turned them into controversies. An emissary was sent to the veteran leader to request him to stop writing his blogs.

Being a disciplined party person, Advani obliged. But he was clearly upset because he went silent on all fronts. He even stopped speaking in Parliament although he went almost every day.

His last utterances in the Lok Sabha were recorded on 19 December 2014, according to Parliament records. In fact, an enterprising reporter of a leading weekly found that Advani spoke just 365 words in five years despite a 92 per cent attendance record.

Now that he has been denied a ticket to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Advani seems to shaken off constraints imposed on him by the BJP top brass. Will we hear from him more often in the coming weeks and months?

Back seat for diplomacy

Electoral compulsions are causing disruptions in India’s diplomacy, particularly with neighbouring countries. While Pakistan has become the top most target in the BJP’s campaign, Bangladesh too is feeling the heat.

The home ministry recently cancelled a scheduled meeting between Rajnath Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan. The meeting was slated for April 1 and Rajnath Singh had sent Khan a formal invitation which the Bangladeshi leader had accepted.

But with the Citizenship Bill becoming a major campaign issue for the BJP in the Northeast and in Bengal, party strategists felt that a meeting between the home ministers of India and Bangladesh at this juncture would send wrong signals. How can India mouth platitudes to the visiting dignitary while hitting out at illegal Bangladeshi immigrants? Shah had even called them termites.

Rajnath was told to cancel the meeting. The message went to Dhaka just two days before Khan was set to fly to New Delhi. Hopefully, world leaders understand that elections come first and diplomacy second.

Indore tussle

It is interesting that the BJP has not yet announced the name of its candidate for the prestigious Indore seat in Madhya Pradesh. Party sources say the reason is a tussle between Amit Shah and MP strongman Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

As long as Sumitra Mahajan represented Indore, there was never a problem. But Mahajan has crossed the age limit of 75 set by the BJP for its candidates this time. So after 20 years of contesting from Indore, Mahajan has been forced to bow out of the election.

It seems powerful BJP general secretary and a favourite of Amit Shah, Kailash Vijayvargiya has his eye on the seat. Indore is his home town and he is keen on becoming a Lok Sabha MP.

The fly in the ointment is Chauhan who has never got on with Vijayvargiya. In fact, the former BJP chief minister is responsible for getting Vijayvargiya moved out of MP and transferred to Delhi. Now he is said to be opposing his candidature from Indore.

Chauhan’s preferred choice is Malani Gaud, the current mayor of Indore. Her late husband Laxman Singh Gaud was a popular MLA from the Indore area and served as MP’s education minister till he died in a car accident in 2008.