The Patna University Students Union (PUSU) polls this year witnessed fierce rivalry between the Chhatra JD(U), the student wing of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party, and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS. There were allegations of Janata Dal (United) Vice-President Prashant Kishor meddling in the elections, putting the party's relations with ally BJP under strain. Kishor's visit to the vice-chancellor's residence on Sunday had led to angry protests from the ABVP. After the police rounded up some ABVP leaders, a delegation of BJP MLAs made a late-night dash to the Raj Bhavan in protest and staged a dharna in front of the police station concerned the next day.
The bigger, the better
The Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka has decided that the H D Kumaraswamy cabinet will be expanded on December 22. The effort is to quell discontent within the Congress. Six members from the Congress and two from the JD(S) will be inducted and some MLAs would be appointed heads of corporations and boards on the same day.
This would be the second expansion of the cabinet. A few MLAs, especially those from the Congress, have reportedly conveyed their unhappiness to the party leadership about the functioning of the government and against a few JD(S) ministers, including Kumaraswamy's brother and PWD Minister H D Revanna.
Common enemy
Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu is “on the brink” of losing his voice after 17 days of intensive election campaigning and has been advised “complete rest” for three to five days by doctors. Sidhu, Punjab's local government, tourism and cultural affairs minister, who has injured his vocal cord, has left for an undisclosed destination for a complete check-up and recovery, a Punjab government release said on Thursday. Sidhu was the Congress' star campaigner and addressed over 70 public meetings in 17 days ahead of elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. The 55-year-old former cricketer and television personality, known for his quick wit and oratory, was also in Pakistan on November 28 on Prime Minister Imran Khan's personal invitation to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur corridor. The release added that the “continuous helicopter and plane travel has been detrimental to his health because of him being on embolism treatment as he had suffered a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) due to excess air travel some years ago.”