NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has begun efforts to woo smaller parties, eyeing the two allies of the Samajwadi Party, the Janavadi Socialist Party and the Apna Dal (Kamarawadi). The two parties, which will contest assembly elections in 2022 in alliance with SP, have influence in more than a dozen districts of eastern UP.

Janwadi Socialist Party's Sanjay Chauhan has expressed his desire for an alliance with the SP but the BJP is keen to pull him in anyway. A tie-up with Chauhan, who has a hold on the Bind and Kashyap communities, is calculated to win the BJP non-Yadav OBC votes.

The BJP also wants to take the party of Union Minister Anupriya Patel's sister Pallavi Patel with it. Pallavi Patel defeated Keshav Prasad in Surthu as SP candidate in 2022 elections. BJP reckons that taking Pallavi along will not divide the Kurmi votes.

Rahul will go to Karnataka for damage control

Siddaramaiah in Karnataka and D.K. Rahul Gandhi has to rush to Bengaluru because of the war between the Shivkumar group. Rahul Gandhi will meet the Congress MLAs of Karnataka as the two factions are again arguing over the Chief Ministership. Congress sources claim that in this meeting, Congress MLAs will be directed to focus on the Lok Sabha Elections and refrain from making statements.

The top three ministers of the Siddaramaiah Government, Industries Minister MB Patil, Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa and Public Works Minister Satish Zarkiholi have claimed during the last week that Siddaramaiah will remain as Chief Minister for the full five years. D. Suresh, the only Congress MP in Karnataka and brother of DK Shivakumar, objected to these statements and said, "I can answer these things but it is more appropriate for the High Command to answer." If this matter does not increase, Rahul will persuade.

Differences in BJP over corruption issue in Bihar

The BJP has split into two camps on the issue of fronting Nitish Kumar over the awarding of Rs 1600 crore ambulance contract to JDU MP's sons in Bihar. Leaders including Sushil Modi are silent on the issue while leaders including Giriraj Kishor are pushing for a CBI probe.

Sunil Kumar and Jeetendra Kumar, sons of JDU's Jehanabad MP Chandeshwar Prasad, have been accused of being given contracts in disregard of rules. Apart from Prasad's two sons, Sunil's wife Neha Rani, Jitendra's wife Monalisa and Prasad's brother-in-law Yogendra Prasad Nirala's company have been awarded a Rs 1,600 crore contract to run a fleet of 2,125 ambulances for 102 emergency services. This contract process was started when there was a JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar. At that time, RJD MLAs raised objections in this matter, but RJD is silent as the JDU-BJP alliance is broken. The contract was awarded under BJP rule, so BJP is also silent.

Major operation in PoK ahead of Lok Sabha elections

The Modi government has made Chhattisgarh cadre IPS officer Ravi Sinha the new chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RO), India's top intelligence agency. Sinha is believed to be a trusted official of Amit Shah. Sinha was number two on Raw for over two decades.

There are speculations that the Modi government will carry out a major operation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) before the Lok Sabha elections by making Sinha the chief of ROA. Sinha, who has worked in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in the northeastern states for a long time, will also be instrumental in stopping the spread of violence in Manipur.

The current RO Chief Samant Kumar Goyal is scheduled to retire on June 30. Given Goyal's closeness to BJP leaders, it was expected that he would be given an extension in view of the Lok Sabha elections, but the Modi government has appointed Sinha. Operations like abrogation of Article 370 from Kashmir and surgical strike in PoK's Balakot were accomplished during Goyal's tenure.

No action will be taken on the Adipurush issue

There is growing pressure from Hindus to ban Adipurush, a film based on the life of Lord Rama, but the government is not in favor of the ban. Sources say that the government does not want controversy over the ban on the film when Narendra Modi is on his way to America. The government has no desire to give the foreign media an opportunity to air the issue.

On behalf of the Central Government, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has said that no one has the right to hurt anyone's sentiments. It is unlikely that the government will do anything other than this government style statement. Thakur has indicated that the Censor Board has taken the decision it had to take.

An organization called Hindu Sena has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court demanding a ban on Adipurush. Because of that, the government has an excuse not to take any action now.

Controversy from Dhami's promulgation of uniform civil code

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has created a controversy by announcing that the Uniform Civil Code will soon be implemented. Dhami did not give the date when the uniform civil code will be implemented but tweeted that the uniform civil code law will be implemented in Devbhoomi Uttarakhand in a few days.

Legal experts are calling Dhami's announcement unconstitutional. According to him, the Central Government has the right to enforce the Uniform Civil Code. In this way, he has expressed the fear that the federal structure will break down if the state governments implement laws that suit them.

The Uttarakhand government had formed a committee in March 2022 to draft the Uniform Civil Code. The committee has prepared a draft after receiving public feedback and has started working towards making it a law.

The issue of what will happen to personal laws will also arise when this law becomes law.

***

Rahul Gandhi will return, BJP will ask questions

Rahul Gandhi is expected to arrive in India late this evening due to his visit to America. The BJP on Tuesday targeted Rahul Gandhi over his travel to unknown places abroad. Why Rahul Gandhi spends so much time abroad, why a large part of his foreign travel remains so mysterious, BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya said in his tweet. He added that he has reportedly held secret meetings with foreign agencies and that these groups are against India's interests, raising questions about his visits. Rahul Gandhi is returning to Patna on June 23 ahead of the key opposition meeting.

Nitish canceled Tamil Nadu visit

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday canceled his visit to Tamil Nadu at the last minute. Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and party aide and Pradhan Sanjay Jha are scheduled to attend Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader M Karunanidhi's birth anniversary celebrations. Kumar was scheduled to inaugurate the Karunanidhi Memorial in Tiruvarur and return two days later to hold a meeting with non-BJP parties. No reason was given for canceling his official visit. His visit was considered important to bring non-BJP parties on a single platform. DMK is also associated with him in his movement.

President Murmu's esteemed public relations effort

India's first tribal woman President is trying to make Rashtrapati Bhavan more people-friendly. There are more than 33000 books in the library of Rashtrapati Bhavan and two thousand of them are rare books. They will now be made online for the public. Apart from this, it is planned to digitize the library of Rashtrapati Bhavan and use it for researchers, people, and also for state celebrations. Consideration is also being given to the Raj Bhavan of various states in Delhi to celebrate their state's foundation day at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Apart from this, the possibility of starting a sports facility for children and professionals is also being tested. By doing this they want to make Rashtrapati Bhavan the heart of the people. Although Murmu is not the first president to do so, Abdul Kalam and Pranab Mukherjee have also done so.

Manjhi broke with the Mahagathbandhan

The Hindustani Awami Morcha has decided to break up with the Grand Alliance. Party president Jitan Mazi has met the Governor of Bihar in this regard. This decision has been taken after the meeting of the executive committee of the party. The party has broken with the Grand Alliance for the first time in Bihar. At present HAM has four MLAs and one MLC. Following his departure, the seven-party alliance is now six-party. They include RJD, JDU, Congress, CPI, CPM and CPI-ML. Manjhi's son Santosh Suman resigned from the Nitish cabinet on June 13.

Secular word harms Muslims the most: Shahnawaz

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain on Monday said that no one else has done as much damage to the country and the Muslim population as the word secular. Addressing a public meeting in Karachana town in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj district, he said the opposition used the term as a fevicol to sustain its votebank. They have been terrorizing Muslims in the name of votebank for the last 75 years. Now this shop of secularism has closed in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He said this in reference to the opposition meeting to be held on June 23.

- Inder Sahni