It seems that Pramod Mahajan's chickens are coming home to roost. He is no longer very visible in the corridors of power. First Jayalalitha pointed a finger at him when she complained about a person formerly in the Prime Minister's Office who had conspired with a newspaper tycoon to remove Enforcement Director M.K. Bezbaruah. Then it was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh who demanded action against those misguiding the PM and left no one in doubt that he meant Mahajan. Singh felt that Mahajan had created mischief by implying that the Uttar Pradesh Government was napping and had not put in a formal request to the Centre for flood relief.

Considering his strained relationship with both L.K. Advani and the RSS, it as not surprising that Mahajan was recently removed from all the BJP committees, including the powerful parliamentary board in which, earlier as secretary, he used to rule the roost.

Now Mahajan even seems to be losing his clout with the Prime Minister, perhaps hislone benefactor. Last month he vowed he would prevent the demolition by the New Delhi civic body of the elaborate wedding tent put up by his close friend, Sitanshu Mittal, but the PMO declined to intervene. It was also made clear to him that he will not be getting the plum portfolios of defence, civil aviation or communication which he has been angling for. In fact, there is considerable resistance within the party to his induction in the Cabinet.

Impossible proposition

Jayalalitha is being made the scapegoat for the further deferment of the Cabinet expansion because of her insistence that Vazhapadi Ramamurthi be divested of the petroleum portfolio. But there were other demands as well which the Prime Minister was in no position to meet. Akali leader G.S. Tohra wanted his protege Prem Singh Chandumajra in and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was adamant that the latter be kept out and the junior Badal be made a full-fledged minister. Then again Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singhinsisted that if Rajnath Singh was brought into the Cabinet, four OBC MPs from the state should be accommodated as well. In fact, if all the demands of the BJP and its partners were to be met, the Cabinet strength would cross the three-digit figure.

No retirement blues

Visitors to I.K. Gujral's new residence at 5, Janpath, are struck by the similarity of the entrance to the Prime Minister's official residence at Race Course Road. The portico is made of the same highly polished grey-green kota stone and the lobby has a marble floor with a design in black and pink identical to the flooring that Gujral got specially installed at the Race Course Road during his tenure as the Prime Minister. Even the potted plants have been placed similarly.

Now that he is out of office, the elder statesman is enjoying the perks of being an ex-prime minister without the tension that accompanies the job.

Gujral is a regular on the conference and seminar circuit, both in India and abroad. The former prime ministeracts as India's unofficial diplomatic representative on his trips out of the country though the BJP Government has not granted him any official status. Recently, Gujral not only had a 60-minute chat with French President Jacques Chirac but he was also given a special guard of honour on his arrival in Paris.

Up in arms

The chairperson of the National Commission for Women is a coveted post with a three-year term, a monthly salary of Rs 36,000, a car, a house and a budget of Rs 2 crore. Small wonder then that the BJP's women's wing was up in arms when Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi proposed the name of Veena Nayar for the post. Nayar, after all, has no connection with the sangh parivar and her work for women's causes is fairly recent and of the armchair variety, according to party activists. Faced with the combined wrath of the BJP's Mahila Morcha, Joshi has retreated and taken bak the proposal. In fact, he put the blame for Nayar's choice on L.K.

Advani and A.B. Vajpayee.It seems in fact that her main backer was former prime minister I.K. Gujral.

Contentious issue

With the Congress confident of victory in the forthcoming Rajasthan Assembly elections, an intensive fight has begun over who should become the next chief minister. As of now, Natwar Singh as Sonia Gandhi's favourite has an edge. Congressmen, who treated the former blue-blooded diplomat as a political lightweight earlier, view him with a new-found respect now since he gets to meet the enigmatic party chief regularly and has emerged as her key adviser. However, the state's powerful OBC leaders, Rajesh Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, have joined forces to keep Natwar, a Jat, out.

Natwar's detractors believe that his Achilles heel could be his son, who hopes to contest the Assembly elections from Alwar district. Sonia had recently emphasised in a speech in Rajasthan that Congress leaders' kith and kin would not be given tickets. So will she make an exception in the case of Natwar? In the tussle between the Jat andOBC leaders, the Brahmin Nawal Kishore Sharma has emerged as the chairman of the state campaign committee.