It is now the turn of the BJP to fume. The saffron party is up in arms over advertisements released by the Bihar government, of which it is a part, that project only chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) as “Vikas Purush” but make no mention of the BJP’s Sushil Kumar, who is deputy chief minister.

Defying CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, the West Bengal government has invited expelled party leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to be the main speaker at the first Jyoti Basu Memorial Lecture at the state Assembly on Thursday.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has indicated that it is a transgression of the party line to give prominence to an expelled member, in this case Mr Somnath Chatterjee who is to be the main speaker at the first Jyoti Basu Memorial Lecture, sources disclosed.

With reds and saffrons in complete disarray, the two hardliners, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, appear to be inching closer to each other. Even as Bengal comrades continue to fume at Mr Karat for holding the state’s “poor administration” responsible for the party’s rapid loss of ground in the state, Mr Advani thinks the Marxist boss is right.

The situation is apparently looking grim for the Maoists waging a so-called “protracted war” against the state. A day after one of its top leaders, Azad, was killed in Andhra Pradesh, reports are being received that the condition of the elusive Maoist leader in West Bengal, Kishenji, whose left leg was amputated, is critical.

The government is apparently concerned about the functioning of three key ministries — railways, communications and information technology and chemicals and fertilisers. While the railway minister is Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the ministries of communications and information technology and chemicals and

With the DMK given only three Cabinet berths following its strength of 19 MPs, Mr T.R. Baalu could not be accommodated and Mr M.K. Alagiri, the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s son, was preferred. However, even if Mr A. Raja is withdrawn, the DMK chief is not in the mood right now to recall his son, Mr Alagiri, known for long absences from both his ministry and Parliament.

Trouble brews within the Trinamul Congress over the advertisement showing Union railway minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee promoting a brand of hawai chappal in a Bengali daily. A section of Trinamul leaders now want the party to “initiate action” against the newspaper along with the footwear company. This particular section also wants the Trinamul chief to question the owner of the paper, a Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP, for publishing the advertisement “without informing her”.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s advisers have asked him “keep the Gujarat chief minister, Mr Narendra Modi, away from the state and campaign”, following the riot cases pending against him.

Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar appears to be trying to emerge as the face of a possible “third front” ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to “delink” his outfit from the “communal” BJP.