Illustration by Siddhant Jumde
BJP's Breach Party
Word is that a key member of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's family will cross over to the BJP ahead of the 2022 assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. The speculation started after the Yogi Adityanath government recently provided 'Y' grade security-of 11 armed police personnel-to Mulayam's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav. Aparna, 31, had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 UP polls on an SP ticket. She sought police protection last year. In recent years, Aparna's position on issues, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, has been pro-BJP. She has even publicly opposed brother-in-law and SP president Akhilesh Yadav. In March 2017, Adityanath visited a cow shelter run by a trust where Aparna and husband Prateek are patrons. The game's on.
True Colours
On June 13, the cabinet colleagues of Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao inaugurated two-bedroom houses for the poor in KamÂareddy, fulfilling his pre-2014 poll promise. The catch? They are painted bright pink-the colour of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Don't rule out a whitewash yet. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy government was recently asked by the Supreme Court to take down the ruling party's colours (green-blue-yellow) from panchayat buildings.
Yeddy-made Soup
The BJP central leadership's rejection of all three nominees of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka has sparked a row. Adding insult to his injury, the candidates picked instead-Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti-for the two Upper House seats are from a rival party faction. Insiders say Yediyurappa has not taken kindly to the rejections and will be looking to reassert himself in the June 29 legislative council polls to fill up seven vacancies. The tug-of-war has just begun.
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