Gunning for attention
Is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP's) Patna Sahib lawmaker Shatrughan Sinha (pictured), who has an acrimonious equation with the leadership of his party, finally ready to quit? In a series of sharply-worded posts, he took on the government over what he alleged were “unfulfilled poll promises”. In one of the posts, he said, “You may be having many admirers but I won't be one of them.” In another, he sent out a warning that he might not stick around for long. In January, too, he had said he was ready to quit the BJP “at once”. He, however, had one condition — the party “high command” must ask for his resignation.
Hot seat
All of a sudden, the Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand) Lok Sabha seat is the cynosure of all eyes. Manish Khanduri, who is a son of former Uttarakhand chief minister B C Khanduri (pictured) and has joined the Congress over the weekend, is expected to be fielded from the seat, which his father, a retired major general, represents. There are at least three hopefuls from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) side. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's son Shaurya has been campaigning in the district for over a year now.
Col (retd) Ajay Kothiyal is also seeking the BJP ticket. Rear admiral (retd) Om Prakash Singh Rana is a potential candidate listed by the BJP for contesting from the constituency. Khanduri senior has refused to contest the seat this time, citing poor health.
Room for appeal
During a recent hearing in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Chairperson Justice S J Mukhopadhyay expressed his anguish at the state of infrastructure provided to him. He went on to ask why, at the age of 70, he should work so hard when the government was refusing to provide adequate support.The NCLAT functions from a small office building in the CGO Complex. Despite many requests from lawyers and even directions from the Delhi High Court, there has been little progress on upgrading the NCLAT infrastructure.