Lucknownama

'Honourable' invites

Several ministers and legislators of the ruling Samajwadi Party were unhappy when they did not receive the invitation for the lunch with President Pranab Mukherjee at the chief minister's residence. Only the cabinet ministers and some select MPs and MLAs were invited. Those left out called up each other to find out the reason, but did not get any wiser. When Pranab Mukherjee had last visited Lucknow to seek votes during the presidential election, all ministers and MLAs were invited for the lunch at the CM's residence. Even the jailed MLAs, who had then come out to attend the Assembly session, were there. Why the discrimination this time? The answer is simple: then, Pranab Mukherjee was a candidate, now he is the President and a lunch in his honour will obviously have selected guests.

New Lesson learnt

The removal of Minister of State for Revenue Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh for virtually abducting a CMO is weighing heavily on Samajwadi Party legislators and ministers. History-sheeter MLA Abhay Singh was approached by a supporter with a complaint that the Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) of Faizabad had not accepted his recommendations for transfer of teachers. The supporter asked Abhay to give the BSA a bit of his mind. But the MLA reportedly got furious, and reprimanded him telling him to remember Vinod Singh's fate.

Listed channels

Only four persons in the Samajwadi Party are authorised to speak to the media: party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav and state spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary. Yet, Ram Asrey Kushwaha, another general secretary, is a regular on TV. The media cell of the party, therefore, discreetly told the TV channels to contact only the authorised persons for the party's view, whenever necessary. For the next two days, Kushwaha was not seen on the TV. The third day, however, he was there on the Lok Sabha TV. Apparently, Lok Sabha TV is not on the regular list of the party's media cell and, therefore, did not get the message.

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