Jitin loBBieS for a weak opponent
Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Jitin Prasada is worried that he will lose his parliamentary seat Dhaurahra in Uttar Pradesh. His mother Kanta Prasad is now lobbying with BJP president Rajnath Singh to field a weak candidate against her son. The main contender for the seat is BJP’s Poonam Mishra, Jitin Prasada’s former campaign manager. Mishra joined the BJP before the UP Assembly elections and has a good presence in the area. But Jitin Prasada wants Ashish Massey, the erstwhile national president of the BJP’s Minority Morcha, to be fielded from there. Massey belongs to the area, but is not considered as strong as Mishra. Meanwhile, Jagdambika Pal, the MP from Domariyaganj, who quit the Congress on Friday, is finding it difficult to join the BJP after Kalyan Singh convinced Narendra Modi that Pal was in the habit of betraying trust. He may now join the Samajwadi Party. The other Congress MPs who are keen to join the BJP are Harshvardhan Singh, Binoo Pandey, Annu Tandon, Kamal Kishore and Zafar Ali Naqvi. Incidentally, Jitin Prasada, R.P.N. Singh and Jagdambika Pal did not attend Sonia Gandhi’s dinner for Congress MPs and party functionaries. Meanwhile, Rashid Alvi is in touch with both the BJP and BSP. He is unhappy that he was removed from the post of party spokesperson after he compared Narendra Modi with Yamraj (God of Death). Even Minister for Minority Affairs, Rahman Khan, Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, wants to quit as he is unhappy with the Congress for giving reservation to Jats.