Former cricketer and BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu is taking his new role as the co-incharge of the Delhi unit of the party very seriously. Sidhu is not only spending lots of time with the Delhi state BJP leaders but is also teaching them how to build the party base in the true sense. Recently, Sidhu after going through an internal report of the Delhi unit of the party was unhappy at the way the party was building grounds to capture the national capital.

He reportedly told the Delhi BJP chief Vijendra Gupta that if the party really wants to do something seriously they would have to go to Gujarat. Without losing any time, Sidhu took Gupta and two more leaders to Gujarat for a tutorial from the state of Narendra Modi. After its return from Gujarat, Delhi BJP unit is now working hard overtime to emulate the Gujarat model of growth of the party by connecting with the people at the booth level.
The Gujarat impact has been so high that in a monthly meeting addressed by the BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, the city unit of the party gave a call to its workers to start working on the lessons learnt from Gujarat, by bringing the booth level committees at the focus.

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Mulayam-Amar rut deepens
After Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav came in the strong defence of the expelled party leader Amar Singh in the cash-for-vote scam, scribes rushed to find out more about the development and some even went on to speculate that a patch-up could be on the anvil. This was further fuelled by Singh whose office sent SMSes saying that the Rajya Sabha MP would break his silence on the issue on July 31 in his party meeting at Etawa, which happens to be the home belt of the SP chief. Ever since the police arrested his former aide, Sanjeev Saxena in the cash-for-vote scam, Singh had gone into silent mode, which was against his style of going hammer and tongs on any issue, including on cases pending in the Supreme Court. After a senior SP leader was asked if there really was any chance of a patch-up between Mulayam and Amar, he shot back saying it barely mattered even if Amar was taken back in the party. However, the SP leader later clarified that Singh’s expulsion was a unanimous decision of the party and his comeback too would have to be a consensus decision, thereby hinting that the party’s Muslim face Azam Khan would ensure that Amar Singh remains out of the party. Eventually, Singh ended all speculation by lambasting the SP chief by accusing him of asking him to bring in Bollywood actresses for his Saifai Mahotsav at his village.

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Relegated Left left struggling
The Left parties are trying hard to gather steam to corner the government on the issues of price rise and corruption in the Parliament. But having lost its bastion West Bengal to the Trinamul and the fall of the Left citadel in Kerala in the recent assembly elections seems to have relegated both the CPI(M) and CPI to the background where it is unable to create much trouble for the government. And with the UPA government gesturing towards the main Opposition BJP for a compromise formula on the same issues, it remains to be seen how much support the Left can muster to make its own voice heard.

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RVP now has time to build party base
Political observers firmly believe that the LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan is going through the worst time in his political career. He is the only member of his party in the Parliament, that too the LJP chief managed to get by impressing upon the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav that his party could bring in Dalit votes in the Bihar elections. Even after the worst defeat in the Bihar elections, few of the MLAs which were elected from the LJP are learnt to be knocking at the doors of the JD (U) in the hope of getting plum positions in some important bodies.
But Paswan thinks otherwise. He says that he is enjoying his time and this phase is the best in his political career. “Now, I have got enough time to build the party base. Earlier, I was short of time. Now, I am touring all parts of the country to enure that the LJP has pan-India presence,” said Paswan in one of his interactions with the reporters recently. He went on to say that the LJP would be contesting all the seats in next year’s UP Assembly elections and has already nominated coordinaters for most of the Assembly constituencies who would eventually get the tickets. Paswan’s assertions were also reflected in one of the party meeting where delegates had come all the way from Andaman and Nicobar to Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan and Gujarat.
However, one still wonders if Paswan would regain his strength in Bihar due to which he became a minister since 1990s irrespective of which party came to the power at the Centre.