Regional Journal: Pawar goes against INDIA bloc

NCP SP chief Sharad Pawar is giving the Congress-led INDIA bloc a tough time. Although the Opposition has so far stuck together to boycott the Joint Parliamentary Committee tasked with studying the constitution amendment Bill that seeks to remove the PM, CMs and ministers from office if they are jailed without release beyond 30 straight days, Pawar has nominated daughter Supriya Sule to the panel. A call a senior Congress leader made to Pawar to reconsider the decision does not seem to have helped.

HP BJP rift evident

Although the Himachal BJP has been trying to present a united front, its internal rift was evident when separate press releases were issued by factions loyal to former CM Jai Ram Thakur and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur after a joint event to mark the 150th anniversary of the Vande Matram. All BJP leaders had attended the function. CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has often mocked the BJP, saying it was divided into five factions.

Punjabi actor runs the show

Amid row over unconstitutional system of appointing leaders who had lost elections as halqa in-charges, the AAP government has asked Punjabi actor-model Sonia Mann, who joined the party in February and is Rajasansi in-charge, to preside over official meetings. Holding one such meeting alongside the Amritsar and Gurdaspur DCs, she issued a slew of instructions to officials. Bureaucrats, who are aware of her political backing in Chandigarh, just chose to stay mum.

Meme fest over Brazil link

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of a ‘Brazilian connection’ to his ‘vote chori’ charge against the BJP in the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls has sparked a series of online memes mocking the saffron party. One of the hilarious memes features the state’s top leadership grooving to Vengaboys’ peppy chartbuster ‘To Brazil!’. Another dubs the BJP the “Brazil Janata Party”.

Optics over action

Recently, Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann addressed the media at the launch of the Rs 75-crore project for the Kali Devi Temple, Patiala. But as Mann spoke, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal was missing from the live frame. Worried, the party’s social media handler urged the cameraman to bring Kejriwal into the frame, but he could not do so. Kejriwal was requested to stand closer to Mann — and he complied.