By Rahil Nora Chopra
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev will not campaign for BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections as the guru-turned business tycoon fears that his campaigning for the ruling party may harm the interests of his business empire should BJP fail to make it a second time. For the 2014 elections, activist Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev had unitedly worked against the UPA government and after the formation of the BJP government Ramdev participated in a number of BJP programmes and rallies, while expanding his business empire. Now with the stakes being high, he has become circumspect about openly supporting BJP, although the party is not quite ready to let him go. In fact, after Ramdev made his announcement about staying away, BJP participated in the inauguration of his Acharyakulam School and RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi organised an RSS camp at Patanjali Yogpeeth for three days. The BJP leadership has made it clear that the Centre as well as state governments in Uttarakhand, UP, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh would continue to support Ramdev’s businesses by providing licence and other help to Patanjali units in their respective states.
DIGVIJAY SINGH: RIGHT TIME AT RIGHT PLACE
After virtually remaining in exile for some time after his removal from the post of AICC general secretary, Congress leader Digvijay Singh was back in the picture when BSP leader Mayawati announced the break-up of BSP-Congress alliance in Madhya Pradesh. She squarely blamed Digvijay Singh for forcing BSP to part ways. The former chief minister has a knack of coming back into limelight even in the most unlikely situations. Just a few days ago, he had visited Patna to appear in a court case, but met the press there and predicted that Nitish Kumar could change the alliance before the coming Lok Sabha election. According to him, Nitish can break the alliance with BJP in a matter of 24 hours to save his government and asserted how politics is a game of possibilities. As BJP president Amit Shah is not inclined to give as many seats as Nitish wants for his party, he could rock the boat and walk into another alliance. Digvijay Singh used the same language against Nitish as Lalu Prasad Yadav had used against him after he broke off the alliance with RJD-Congress.
RSS-TYPE ZONES FOR RAJASTHAN BJP TICKETS
With the announcement of the dates for the assembly election in Rajasthan, the BJP has divided the state into three zones on the lines of the RSS organisational structure for the state for the distribution of party tickets. The three zones are Jaipur, Jodhpur and Chittorgarh. Each zone will have two leaders appointed by the central leadership, who will select the suitable candidate for every seat. Organisation general secretary Chandrasekhar, national joint secretary V Satish and central ministers Gajendra Shekhawat and Arjun Meghwal are looking after these three zones while national vice president Om Prakash Mathur is coordinating the team. With the new arrangement in place, there is no rush of ticket aspirants at Vasundhara Raje’s Ashok Parnami house or the house of a mahant of Jaipur temple who is supposed to be very close to the chief minister.
TMC, BJP STEP UP FIGHT WITH EYE ON POLL
TMC and BJP are both blaming each other for the bomb explosion in Kolkata, in which an eight-year-old child died and nine people were injured. Two ministers in the Mamata government have put the blame on BJP and RSS for the explosion. But BJP state president Dilip Ghosh alleged that instead of arresting the culprits and maintaining law and order the government was wasting time to blame BJP and RSS. He demanded the resignation of Mamata Banerjee and claimed that minister Purnendu Bose and other TMC leaders are former naxalites. Mamata thinks that the fight in the next election is with the BJP and not with the Left Front and Congress and, therefore, does not want to lose any opportunity to attack the BJP. (IPA)
The post It’s Business Versus Politics For Ramdev This Time appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
